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Review by progpower.com
With John West joining Royal Hunt many with me were concerned for the future of Artension but West and his crew did not let the fans down. Sacred Pathways is Artension's 5th album and the first to be released by Frontiers Records, their new record label. It certainly is a joy seeing Frontiers broadening their horizons signing bands like this.
There are no drastic changes to the Artension sound with Sacred Pathways following the direction of the four previous albums. The band has the advantage of being blessed by some extremely skilled musicians, but that does not automatically mean they can write good songs. Although Artension has written some fantastic songs on their previous albums, I sometimes felt, especially on the last two CDs, that good melody-lines have been overshadowed by virtuosity and instrumental brilliance. This is not the case this time around. The melody-lines, choruses and instrumentation all fall into place and are supplementing each other, bringing the music to a higher level.
I feel these songs are more back to the style and quality of the first two albums, which are by far their best work. West is very good as always and the other band members all deliver a blistering performance of premier musicianship. Seems Kuprij finally found back the winning songwriting formula of previous albums The Eye of The Storm and Phoenix Rising. There are 2 instrumentals, 3 ballads and the remaining 8 tracks are neoclassical melodic metal of finest order. On top you can add a strong production.
Sacred Pathways is Artension's best album in years and comes recommended to all fans of Neoclassical Melodic Metal and high-class musicianship.
Rating: 10 of 12 points
Review by rockreunion.de
ARTENSION is a great band that mixed Progressive Metal, Neo-classical and Melodic Rock vocal/ chorus lines into one amazing sound. The band consists of keyboard player Vitalij Kuprij (RING OF FIRE, a Ukraine born and classically trained musician), bassist Kevin Chown (MAGNITUDE 9, TILES), drummer Mike Terrana (RAGE, AXEL RUDI PELL), vocalist John West (ROYAL HUNT) and guitarist Roger Staffelbach. ARTENSION already released 4 records before this one, but this is their first release on Frontiers Records, and maybe even their best one so far! 'Sacred Pathways' contains something for everyone, because it has not only great songs but influences that range from Progressive, Power, Pomp, AOR to Melodic Rock and even classical music. The excellent keyboard work of Vitalij and John's lead vocals are most notable on this lovely CD. John's vocals sound like a mixture between JOE LYNN TURNER and GLENN HUGHES, a little bit 'soulful' and quite 'emotional'. John and Vitalij also produced the CD together and I must say, they did a fantastic job, making this CD sound like the best you can get these days. After the keyboard intro "Voyage to Nasca", the CD really starts with the great uptempo progressive melodic metal song "Your Victory" (great keys). Next track "Running out of Time" is a lovely midtempo progressive pomp melodic rocker, with really impressive keyboard work and a memorable chorus. "Sacred Pathways" is yet another great uptempo progressive metal tune. The keyboards of Vitalij take an important part on the short intro "Silent Temple", but also on the following track "The Emperor", a fast uptempo melodic power metal track sounding like STRATOVARIUS. "Nightmare" starts as a ballad, but the chorus is superb uptempo AOR, whilte there also is a Progressive Rock break in the song. "Nightmare" is also featured in a radio edit version. "The Killing" is the first weaker song, a groovy Hard rock song. Then comes a great AOR-ish Power Ballad called "The Calm Before the Storm". The instrumental Prog/ Power song "March to Ruin" follows and shows some MALMSTEEN similarities. The piano-ballad "Flower of the Orient" closes the CD actually, because final track "Nightmare" was already featured earlier on. This CD has many highlights and all throughout the album you can hear high quality music, performed by highly skilled musicians. Frontiers has released another excellent album, which is recommended to fans of many styles within the Hard Rock genre.
Rating: 9