Lunatica
The Edge Of Infinity

September 2006
Released: 2006, Frontiers Records/Zink Music
Rating: 4.5/5
Reviewer: Anders Sandvall

Swiss symphonic rockers Lunatica are back with a new studio album. It’s taken them 2 years to follow up their last album, FABLES AND DREAMS, which got great reviews in various magazines and fanzines worldwide. A shorter tour during April/May 2005 followed, which went through Switzerland, Germany, Belguim and France. This time the band went to Wolfsburg, Germany and spent a few weeks in the studio in order to get the new album ready to launch. When they returned from Wolfsburg, they had with them the new album, THE EDGE OF INFINITY, on which they had worked together with producer Sascha Paeth (Kamelot, Rhapsody, Angra, etc.).



Lunatica plays complex symphonic hard rock with a lot of tempo changes and different mood-sets throughout the album. The music starts out being symphonic hardrock/metal but further on in the album you can sense harder and more progressive influences. They still have some musical similarities with Nightwish.



Lead singer Andrea Dätwyler lies at the top of the mix which is a perfect place for her beautiful voice to shine. The album opens in a magnificent way with Dieter Meier, lead singer in the Swizz electronic avant-garde masters Yello, speaking throughout the whole intro simply called “Introduction”. Oliver Hartmann guests on “Emocean” which is a bonus track added both as a duet and with only Andrea on vocals. Another guest singer is John Payne from Asia, who sings with her in “Song for You”. Both duets are great, and their voices suit each other perfectly in both songs. Even though Lunatica have found their sound, it feels sometimes like they have looked too much to Nightwish for influence when it comes to the music, especially in the more progressive metal parts. But Lunatica manage to maintain their identity, largely because of Ms. Dätwyler’s extraordinary voice.



THE EDGE OF INSANITY is an extremely strong album, and it’s really hard to pick out any favorite but at the end of the day I’m totally hooked on “The Edge Of Infinity”, “Out!”, “Together”, “Words Unleashed” and “Emocean”. Even the up-tempo ballads “Who Are You”, “Song For You” and the ballad “The Power Of Love” is great and it’s not often I’m impressed by ballads. Lunatica have what it takes to become the next big act within this genre, and if you’re a fan of Nightwish I really think you should check out Lunatica. They constantly try to reach more people and work as hard as possible to promote the new CD, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled for this band.





http://www.zinkmusic.com