A review by Stephan Becker (In German):
www.obliveon.deA review by Tobias Denstaedt (In German):
www.MetalStorm.deTobias sent us an English version you can read here:
It has been almost one year now since I got confronted with the HEART OF CYGNUS debut album „Utopia“. The power I got struck by at this time did not lose any of its fascination until today. I still listen to „Utopia“ regularly and almost collapse at this unbelievable package of ingenious songs, riffs and melodies.
Now HEART OF CYGNUS released their second, again self produced album „Over Mountain, Under Hill“ and I was curious if the duo would be able to keep the high quality level of „Utopia“. The answer is: They can. They really can.
Although the band made some obvious changes compared to „Utopia“: While the debut album was more or less one big song with 30 minutes of length which was accompanied by the two shorter tracks „The Knight“ and „Winter“, „Over Mountain, Under Hill“ includes 9 stand alone-tracks, which some of are also much longer than the songs on the debut album.
Also HEART OF CYGNUS are expanding the extremes: The proggy parts are more complex and playful while the straighter parts rock harder and more directly as on „Utopia“.
„Over Mountain, Under Hill“ also is not as catchy as „Utopia“ while listening to it for the first time. One needs to take some time to get familiar with the songs. But while listening to the album for the third time at the latest, songs like „Black Riders“ or „Erik“ ignite at full throttle and the listener is struck in the same way as he's used to from the first album.
The two title tracks „Over Mountain“ resp. „Under Hill“ which are opening the album also need some time to develop, especially „Under Hill“ with its long instrumental section. But as stated before, after listening to the album for a few times the songs unfold their whole potential and I ask myself again how fantastic music can get.
And the highlights of „Over Mountain, Under Hill“ have not yet been mentioned:
The first one is the instrumental „The King and his Steed“ , which continues at the point where „Escape“ of the predecessor ended: Riffs and lead-melodies of unearthly divinity give you a complete lockjaw.
The next song is in my opinion the absolute climax of the album and also of the band in total until today. The eight-minute „Lost at Sea“ is really that abnormal outreaching great, that I am not able to describe it in an appropiate way. What HEART OF CYGNUS do here, is really overwhelming. How perfect can hard rock music become? Variety til no end, high speed parts collide with epic midtempo stuff, riff cannonades overtake the listener, only to get resolved in the next melody of the century one minute later. It is simply not possible to be better than in this song.
„The Mountain King“, which also reaches a long playing time, features some more quiet and calmer parts, but has also so many great melodies, that it almost seems to be unnatural. The best twin guitar melodies since 1986-Iron Maiden are woven into this song like it would be the most self-evident thing in the world.
And fitting perfectly to this Iron Maiden-reminiscence the band celebrates a cover version of „Revelations“ as the final song of the album. This version is very close to the original, but with every second one can hear the heartblood and the love to this music which HEART OF CYGNUS put into this song. Great!
Lyric-wise „Over Mountain, Under Hill“ also follows another direction than „Utopia“ did. While „Utopia“ was more into a gloomy concept story about a surveillance state, „Over Mountain, Under Hill“ features different topics like the vikings („Lost at Sea“ / „Erik“) or the Lord of the Rings („Black Riders“) Such topics might be a little bit exhausted and overplayed in Heavy Metal, but it does not really spoil the pleasure listening to the album. The music that this band plays is just too great.
„Blue Planet“ is the only song on the album which in my opinion does not completely reach the level of the rest of the album. All other songs are just perfect Rock/Metal music, it's really as simple as that.
Also the sound of the album is very good and also better than on „Utopia“ - very natural, very differentiated, just the way as it should be!
HEART OF CYGNUS are planning live gigs and will play at next year's „Keep It True“ Festival. I am already looking forward to that and can't wait to see them live
And for those, who still don't believe: Go to the Myspace-Page of the band and check out „Lost at Sea“ or one of the other songs featured there. Now!
95/100
Tobias Denstaedt