Entertaining but with Significant Ups and Downs - A Review of Liv Moon's Circle of Life

I still remember discovering and appreciating symphonic metal band Liv Moon twelve years ago with the the excellent Symphonic Moon. The band even released another studio album named The End of the Beginning that same year before not releasing a new full length studio effort in ten years. The group has now come back with Our Stories followed by seventh studio output Circle of Life. The final verdict is rather simple since nothing has changed stylistically in the past dozen years. Adamant fans of the band or of female-fronted symphonic metal in general should certainly enjoy Circle of Life to the fullest. Newcomers might also give this record a fair chance. Those who however happen to fancy such a genre less from the start will not be impressed by Circle of Life either.

The highlights on this output are songs that find a stable balance between symphonic passages based upon classical instruments such as the violin and classically trained vocals by charismatic lead singer Akane Liv and contemporary influences such as power and heavy metal bass, drum and guitar play as well as more natural vocal efforts that occasionally flirt with classic pop territory in the key of ABBA. One of these songs that I would strongly recommend is "Craving", clocking in at a perfect five and a half minutes and featuring numerous fluidly interwoven ideas from classical music over pop music to power metal while not forgetting about catchy vocal lines in the chorus. This is my personal highlight on the record.

Liv Moon however excels less when abandoning this focused balance and targeting one genre much more than another. This is for instance the case on "Nessun Dorma" that is easily the worst song on the record. The original composition by Giacomo Puccini is a masterpiece which has been splendidly performed by Luciano Pavarotti who interpreted the role of a prince in ancient China. Hearing the role of a prince interpreted by and the magnificent tenor vocals of Luciano Pavarotti replaced by a female singer of Japanese, Korean, Polish and Swedish origins simply feels out of place. What harms that interpretation even more are the weird modern sound samples and pointless long instrumental interludes stretching the song to an unnecessary length of almost five minutes. Positive minds might call that interpretation creative but most realistic minds shall indeed describe it as being terrible.

As you can read, Liv Moon's seventh studio record Circle of Life is an overall good symphonic metal record that however has both significant ups and downs. Genre enthusiasts should appreciate this album but occasional fans should certainly rather try Liv Moon's excellent Symphonic Moon that benefits from much better songwriting.

Final Rating: 67%