Review by Xephyr for Leaves' Eyes - The Last Viking (2020)
The Frustrating Consistency Of Modern Symphonic Metal
Leaves' Eyes continue to spin their wheels in the mud with The Last Viking, releasing another set of almost painfully generic tracks that rarely anything past your typical late 2010's Symphonic Metal. All the expected elements are here, with new vocalist Elina Siirala's pretty operatic tone fitting in nicely but never exactly oversteps its boundaries, the contrasting male vocals from Alexander Krull being slightly more growl oriented, and mid-tempo riffing with orchestral backdrops serving as the main structure to most of the tracks. Their heavy use of harsh vocals has always been one of their defining features, with Kroll basically taking over as the main vocalist nowadays, going toe to toe with Siirala in almost every melody nowadays, producing some mixed results overall. I've been waiting all year for a Symphonic Metal release to wow me and, at this point, I doubt I'm going to find one.
It's easy to write off modern Symphonic Metal by saying that it's a parody of itself at this point, which is a statement I've heard many others echo. While I'm inclined to agree, I feel like the problem runs deeper than the genre not being able to be taken seriously. The more albums like The Last Viking I listen to, the more I realize that these bands have somehow forgotten how to write compelling Metal songs with symphonic elements. Either that or the genre has evolved into something that isn't targeted to me. Rather than utilizing the Metal band and the orchestra in their own unique ways to bounce off one another and create memorable moments, the two always seem to blend into a muddy, monotone mess of the orchestra simply mirroring the Metal melodies and riffs, adding very little value to the songs. Leaves' Eyes fall into the same trap on many of these tracks, including "Chain of the Golden Horn", "Dark Love Empress", "Serkland", and many others. All of the orchestral flourishes exist only to provide an additional layer to the main melody rather than create their own, leaving most of these tracks sounding flat, dull, and uninspired for the most part. In my opinion the orchestra should be treated as its own voice in Symphonic Metal, not just as a way to artificially inflate riffs and melodies, which is why albums like The Last Viking fail to capture that epic feeling great Symphonic Metal should have. Albums like this in the current Symphonic Metal landscape feel contrived and stale because, for the most part, they're extremely basic in what they bring to the table in terms of riffs and drumming on top of the orchestra not adding any real depth most of the time.
Digressing back to The Last Viking, Leaves' Eyes succeed in creating another listenable symphonic experience with a few standout moments across an admittedly bland set of tracks. I think it's a shame that they give so much of the spotlight to the male vocalist instead of writing some more interesting parts for Siirala, since his growls feel out of place in tracks like "Black Butterfly" and "War of Kings". They sound fine in "Flames in the Sky" and "The Last Viking" since the metal riffing really kicks in during his parts, but he seems overutilized when you have a fantastic female vocalist that feels like she was underwritten. Leaves' Eyes know how to write fantastic orchestral ballads though, with "Two Kings One Realm" being incredibly cheesy but extremely pretty, the intro of "Death of a King" sounding suitably epic, and the fully orchestral portions of "The Last Viking" being great as well. It just feels like they lose all of their creativity when it comes to bringing everything together.
As much as I try to give new Symphonic Metal albums a shot, I can't help but come back to the conclusion that something is missing nowadays. While The Last Viking is far from bad, it's far from incredible either, and it really exemplifies a lot of the issues that I have with the genre as of late. Much of the progress being made incorporating orchestras into the metal setting is being made by different subgenres, like Power Metal or Progressive Metal, which is all well and good but I really wish that there was a place for good, old fashioned Symphonic Metal somewhere in there. Leaves' Eyes gave it their best shot this year, with their atmospheric orchestral backings being a cut above the rest, but it just seems like the same oversights are being made time and time again.