I needed a break from all the Death/Black/Extreme metal releases that have flooded my mailbox recently and the new album by Italy's Ravenword was a nice opportunity for that. As the cover gives away, Ravenword play symphonic power metal which manages to overcome the usual weaknesses that the bands of this genre usually carry (ie flat vocals, weak production, unmemorable and boring compositions) and while it does not avoid the obvious references and comparisons (Nightwish, Within Temptation) it is still an album strongly recommended for the fans of this genre. If i could find only one negative in Transcendence, that would be its long duration however the quality of the songs compensate that.
