Grandly Designed New Album from Edenbridge

By: RANDALL LARSON
Date: Wednesday, July 05, 2006

The Austrian progressive "angelic bombast" metal band Edenbridge has released their latest (and fifth) studio album, The Grand Design, a lavishly arranged and extremely dynamic and powerful prog metal album.

Just released in Germany by Massacre Records in a handsome hardback booklet format with a 20-page collection of beautifully-illustrated lyrics, The Grand Design will be released in the US via Napalm Records (date not yet announced) and in Japan on July 26th via King Records.

Dominated by vocalist Sabine Edelsbacher and guitarist/keyboardist Lanvall, the band has been described as featuring "ethereal female vocals fronting a mix of power metal, goth metal, and prog metal. Varied songwriting and tempo changes bring some fresh air to the format." (-www.isotank.com)

The band's follow-up to 2004's Shine, The Grand Design was recorded at The Farpoint Station studio in Austria and the Thin Ice facility in England with Threshold mastermind Karl Groom. Guest musicians on the album include Dennis Ward and Robby Valentine, both of whom were responsible for backing vocals and choirs on the new CD.

Commented Lanvall: "The Grand Design has evolved to our biggest production so far and just the recordings took nearly three months to complete. It's the most vocal-orientated album of our band history, which especially can be heard in the many choir and backing vocals. Robby Valentine has done up to 64 voices in the 2 longtracks of the album which bring a totally new dimension into our sound. It was a great experience to record with him in Holland. Besides he played a fantastic piano solo in "Terra Nova." Also Dennis Ward did a brilliant job again. It's simply amazing to have musicians of such quality on the album. . . [Karl Groom] also recorded a fantastic solo for "Terra Nova"."

A single, featuring the band's cover version of the James Bond classic "For Your Eyes Only" (composed by Bill Conti and originally sung by Sheena Easton), was issued in April. The single includes three non-album tracks (electric and acoustic versions of the Conti song, a song called "Evermore," and the new album's title track). Both album and single are available from amazon.com, amazon.de, or isotank.com

www.edenbridge.org

www.napalmrecords.com

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