Gaia Epicus - Dark Secrets 2012

Join us in the defender of metal is Gaia Epicus. The band mostly motorized by guitarist and singer Thomas Christian Hansen, had been playing various kind of metals since 1993. On 2001 they fix their path and choose power metal as their main menu. Gaia Epicus is hailed from Norway and releasing their fifth studio album this month. The style of this album generally power metal , but without much over drive chorus things,  less keyboards and lend to bits of thrash and progressive. The association is close to Gamma Ray with slightly Symphony X complexity.

Beyond The Universe come as the first track and without warning we are in the double pedal drumming and melodic intro. The song develop to standard power metal tunes. There is interesting interlude of progressive like staccato drumming and rhythm before entering the first guitar solos. Hellfire played with very Helloween-ish riff intro and continue full scale into our comfort power metal zone. Lost Forever starts with catchy guitar works intro, the singing here experiments bit with combination of post production effect vocal and slightly growling voice. The rhythm team also got their chance to showcase in track Mirror of Youth. This has memorable verse and chorus and most well received in my sub consciousness  so far.

The first round ended by Ode To The Past, an instrumental track that combined bits of neoclassical things. We then entered the second part of the album that more mellow melody and acoustic setting as in Farewell and Last Chance. The highlight point here is titled song, Dark Secret that try to get bits of epic feel and a popular setup, duet with female singer.

Gaia Epicus deserved his wider audience recognition  as the quality of this album suggest. Beside leading voice by Thomas, the team work chemistry is great. Drummer in service doing great in support of the band’s composition. Voice leading here performed mostly in pressed head voice as similar to Kai Hansen, so expect less epic or fantasy high pitch chorus here, except one shoot screaming in The Raven. The keyboard portion is less than average power metal song but still significantly dictate the atmosphere of many songs. A good works by Gaia Epicus, it is not surprised to see the raise of interest from power fans around the world online, especially from Asia. Their social network has announced a recruit of hundreds of Indonesian fans. We hope this will encourage the team to continued delivered quality metal album.

Gaia Epicus - Dark Secret 2012
buy it here

01. Beyond The Universe
02. Hellfire
03. Lost Forever
04. Mirror Of Truth
05. Bounded By Blood
06. Ode To The Past
07. Farewell
08. The Raven
09. Behind These Walls
10. Falling Into The Abyss
11. Dark Secrets
12. Last Chance

Thomas Chr.Hansen - guitars, vocals, keys

Guest Musicians:
Michael T. Ross - keyboards
Lasse Jensen - guitar solos
Kristian Nergård - bass
Kristoffer Øyen - drums
John Erik Andersen - vocals
Maria Kristin Sørensen - vocals

Cover painting by:
J.P Fournier ( Edguy, Avantasia, Dragonforce )
CD Mastered at:
Jailhouse Studios ( Helloween, Jorn )

Album cover in fantasy artwork