Released by: Frontiers Music srl
Release date: 2 June 2017
Genre: Melodic Metal
Links: Facebook
Line-up:
Ronnie Romero – Vocals
Mike Terrana – Drums
Magnus Karlsson – Guitars, Bass & Keyboards
Track Listing:
01 – End Of The Road
02 – Ferryman
03 – Fool You All
05 – Cry Wolf
06 – One Heart
09 – Enter Your Dream
10 – Eyes On The Sky
11 – Eternal Night
12 – Welcome To My Show
Through the 2000’s there has been a man working his ass off writing, performing, and recording some of the best albums from some of the greatest lists of bands, like Starbreaker, Place Vendome, Primal Fear; and artists like Russell Allen & Jorn Lande, Bob Catley, and Michael Kiske & Amanda Somerville (just to name a few.) His discography is the stuff made of dreams. Known for delivering metal with equal parts melodic and epic, he has made a name for himself for consistently creating some of the most astounding music around. His name…Magnus Karlsson. He isn’t a household name, but those in the know would readily agree: if you see his name you’re damn near guaranteed to get your metal on in a big way! Joining forces with the voice of Lords of Black and the current incarnation of Rainbow Ronnie Romero and drummer extraordinaire Mike Terrana of Rage, Karlsson has brought us The Ferrymen, and with a pedigree this tight you set your expectations pretty high.
With their self-titled debut, The Ferrymen deliver some pretty intense melodic Power Metal, with some incredibly powerful performances, but as a whole, I don’t love it near as much as I wanted to. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a great album and all three gentlemen deliver, but the songs seem to be missing something; they don’t seem overly inspired and just kind of cookie cutter perhaps? Frankly, I’m stunned writing this. After a number of spins, I liked it, but I didn’t love it. Tracks like “End of the Road” and “The Darkest Hour” offered promise, but simply fell short of the mark, as was the rest of the album. Again, I must stress, it’s not a bad album. It’s actually pretty good compared to some other garbage being released. I guess it just doesn’t live up to the Karlsson standard, which, truth be told, is never fair to an artist to set them to any particular standard musically.
Each recording is a piece of them offered to us to enjoy or not.
After such a great track record, there’s bound to be a stumble or two. And as far as stumbles go, The Ferrymen is the kind of stumble one would want. I hold out hope that this is one that will grow on me as time progresses. That’s the tough part about writing reviews: you’re pressed for time to write about it before it’s released and sometimes it takes much more time than a deadline offers to “get it.” Not to mention that sometimes an album strikes you differently only to finally click later on. Of course in the world of rock journalism, that “click” often happens after the words are written and published. Oh well, you don’t have to take my word for it right? Just check it out and decide for yourself. Why are you even listening to me? You don’t know me! Seriously though, it’s worth a spin, just not as stellar as my expectations were set for. It happens.
Written by: Chris Martin