Ancient Autopilots - A Review of Leaves' Eyes' Myths of Fate

Ten full length records into its career, it seems that German-Dutch-Italian-Finnish sextet Leaves' Eyes is on autopilot. Myths of Fate offers everything you expect, no more or less. While consistency can be considered a virtue, I'm missing the band's desire to innovate, progress and take risks on this output.

The songwriting is generally based upon four-minute long tracks with verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus structures. The songs rush by without leaving any lasting impressions. If I absolutely had to point out noteworthy songs at all, I would mention the slightly catchy ''Hammer of the Gods'', the epic and heroic ''Sons of Triglav'' and the average attempt at going back to the band's folk metal roots on ''Einherjar''.

The musicianship is mid-paced and can be described as bland heavy metal with a few minimal extreme metal influences, especially regarding the drum patterns. That simple musicianship is enriched by occasional folkloristic passages and a few symphonic sound samples. They are however not used constantly enough to qualify this record as either folk metal or symphonic metal.

The classically trained female vocals by Elina Siirala are technically appealing but lack any form of proper identity. She might be a better singer than her predecessor Liv Kristine from a scholar perspective but the Norwegian singer had charisma, warmth and uniqueness that still make her stand out. Eline Siirala sadly doesn't seem to be having any of that. Her vocals would blend in wonderfully in a musical or in an opera but the lead position of a metal band simply doesn't suit her. Myths of Fate features a few half-hearted choirs and the occasional male grunts that are kept at a bare minimum throughout the record. This is a shame since the quality of the most recent trilogy of Atrocity records with such vocals has been remarkable.

One thing I would like to point out is that it's a shame that this release doesn't seem to be physically available on CD without the completely useless additional disk with instrumental versions of musically unimpressive tunes. Instead of wasting resources on something that nobody needs, the band with its folkloristic roots should have thought about protecting the environment instead.

At the end of the day, Leaves' Eyes' Myths of Fate only just qualifies as passable record for adamant fans of the band. There are however much stronger records in the band's discography, there are many similar groups that have now outclassed them such as Midnattsol and the band members' other group Atrocity that only omits Leaves' Eyes singer has been offering much better quality throughout the past few years. Even though there are several past records of the group that I still adore and despite a cover artwork that certainly strikes a chord, I'm not going to be revisiting Leaves' Eyes' Myths of Fate for a while and wouldn't recommend it to anyone either.

Final Rating: 60%