Cardiant - Verge

Cardiant

Verge

by YngwieViking at 10 June 2013, 9:39 PM

I was a little puzzled while I was writing this short review, on one hand I felt that the band isn’t really stable in its own style, switching from ROYAL HUNT ("Justice Turns Into Revenge") to NIGHTWISH (“Ever Since” / "While The Ice Is Cold") from SAVATAGE ("Ever Since") to STRATOVARIUS ("Thought's Inception" / "Heaven's Calling") with also some AOR influences similar to LEVERAGE ("Stranger In Me") up to RENEGADE FIVE (“Beat of Heart”) in a blink of an eye.

On the other side of the reasoning, the Finnish sextet CARDIANT is able to play greatly in many genres, stretching itself into many styles under the same banner of Scandinavian melodic Metal. Their third album "Verge"  is a fine mix of several genres or a summary of what Finland brought to melodic Metal lately, indeed, they blend several genres into a surprisingly interesting and entertaining album filled with diversity like "Break Your Mind": a straightforward number with traditional Power Metal ingredients or “Love's Not On My Way” another groovy Rock mid-tempo to changing again for a song like “Believe” with an Epic dimension with some symphonic elements and a few discreet progressive nuances.

I must confess that ,the addition of a female vocalist Miss Outi Jokinen in the line-up for this album, mainly for background vocals , wasn’t very thrilling for me at first, but her talent is pretty evident, so her capacities are also used for some lead work, often in duet, in the same pattern as SERENITY for their last album “War Of Ages”, avoiding the Classical trained diva gimmick to a more intelligent goal , a focus on the texture richness and definitely a clever complement to add at the traditional Metal vocal style of Erik Karhatsu (think ex-THUNDERSTONE’s Pasi Rantanen meets Tony Kakko’s latest evolution).

“Verge” A good title for this band on the edge of many things… Finland 7 points!