Project Arcadia, is a Bulgarian gathering of musicians now “crowned” vocally by the one and only Urban Breed, Swedish vocalist extraordinaire, (formerly with Tad Morose and Bloodbound and currently with Trail of Murder). “A Time of Changes” is their second album and it’s out worldwide either on the bands own company or Nightmare records. It’s an album of very melodic metal that will please fans of Tad Morose, or very liberally speaking the fans of all of the mid-80s melodic Teutonic bands like MSG or The Scorpions in their more melodic metal phase, or even Accept’s more melodic moments. That’s not to say that PA, is too soft, or too hard, there’s a nice balance between the two, in the album, a nice equilibrium that is always reached, no matter how many times things might be thrown out of balance throughout the albums duration.
“Here to Learn” has a very urgent musical theme and some really tight rhythmical playing that’s almost thrashy going on in the background, yet Urban easily manages to come on top of all that sonic tempest sounding pretty damn good! Well as good as I remember him more or less I guess from his past endeavors…
“Shelter Me” is more melodic but no Fates Warning cover, even if some slight prog tendencies seem to make their presence more prominent… if there’s something that I need to complain slightly about is that mix-wise, Breed could have easily been a little higher, overall as he seems to have been lowered against the instruments, probably during the mastering. It might be a 10/15% but when things get loud instrument wise… sometimes the vocals can’t antagonize on their own. Thankfully, this is not something that plagues the album throughout, but in certain points and setups, I could have done with a little more “oomph” on Mr. B.
“I Am Alive” is a mid-tempo epic, grandiose track, something like a semi power ballad, with a big solo in the middle and it stems from life experiences so it gets a bit sentimental…
“Beggars at the Door” hits the pedal and pushes it to the floor, but the end result is a track that with all its speed maintains a lot of melody and a particularly nice chorus at that.
Coming up almost as a complete antithesis of almost everything before it “The Ungrateful Child” is an almost acoustic piece, that’s very reminiscent of Pain of Salvation with maybe a bit of the tenderness of some of what Conception were all about. Another, inspired moment and even if it’s a borderline performance there for a moment, a great one by Urban Breed.
“Timeless” continues the “prog” and experimental tendencies and felt to me like something that would have felt not like out of place on Conception’s “Flow”… here’s Urban Breed, really excels, as he doesn’t sing but he just conveys emotion.
“Joy” is a – joyous one and a half-minute instrumental piece that will probably lift your spirit and probably acts as a small musical interlude before the album’s title track…
“A Time of Changes” is heralded, by a barrage of rather hard hitting metal riffs that go on for about a minute, before things quiet down as UB, starts to use a very nice and soft vocal delivery to quietly grieve or mourn… again being very reminiscent of himself and early Roy Khan. He then gets louder along with a shift in the music motif, things cycle a couple of times in that way through the song, in a song that feels again quite like a lost early 90s prog gem.
And before its predecessor has even finished “Formidable Foe” enters with a lingering riff that’s reminiscent of the last “phrase” of the “ATOC”… a much darker, almost gloomy piece, with some superb melodies and obviously an equally fitting vocal performance to go with them.
“The Deal” is a mid-tempo song with melodic singing that here is too pronounced, as the instrumentation remains rather spartan, throughout, with the occasional solo happening and being clearly audible as the vocals are really dominant on this one… it’s quite nice, if not a bit over the top, I’d say!
Last but not least “Shadows of the Night” is a much more well-rounded track, with a very nice, lyrical intro, with some of Breed’s most evocative singing on the album, that suddenly becomes more aggressive, and then sort of acrobatically moves between moderately sweet and aggressive – between the verses and choruses… it’s probably the songs that displays his vocals abilities to their fullest extent on this album I guess as well as one of the best.
Well, overall this sophomore album by Project Arcadia, which I obviously had never heard before, they towed, good ole’ Breed in, has the aforementioned Urban Breed, to brag about, which is something to be very proud of, as the said gentleman, is putting on as good a vocal performance as he’s ever known to put on the albums that he’s previously sung on… that being said… this bunch of Bulgarian chaps, maybe helped by Mr. B, maybe not, have composed a rather nice set of melodic metal songs, that is quite interesting and should in general please the prog/power fans of melodic metal among you. Think Tad Morose, think Conception, but don’t think too much metal, there’s the metal moments, it’s not hard rock, or prog rock, it’s not Dream Theater, well, I suppose you might need a spin to be totally convinced, but with the exception of maybe a couple of tracks that I think got slightly “badly mastered” (especially the ones that seem to open the album), overall, metal fans should find no difficulty liking this.
