LOSTWISH – Lostwish

Years in the making, Lostwish from Norway consists of Atle Tvedt on vocals, guitars and keyboards plus Pal T. Nygard on drums, bass and additional keyboards. On this debut 10 song album, it’s readily apparent Atle excels on the guitar- channeling the best in the traditional metal and melodic power business. With influences from TNT and Helloween to Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, you would think songs like “Here I Am” and “Under The Light Of The Moon” would burst from your speakers with strong arrangements and energetic playing.

Dull, lifeless, and vocally off key would be three immediate descriptive thoughts that come to mind. Atle can’t sing- at least in line with 99% of the best in the metal business. The hooks and main riffs don’t grab your ears- they merely fill space in the sound chamber of life. You have to be careful when you throw around brilliant and powerful words on your biography sheet if you can’t back it up- and Lostwish struggles to play even at a mid-tempo pace without inducing measures of this reviewer screaming at his computer screen in agony. And the ballad “Crossing The Ocean”? We need auto tune on the vocals, stat!

Suggestions? Time to take your obvious ability on the guitar, find some other musicians who can fill out a full lineup and really re-assess your strengths. When the cover art is the highlight of an independent release, we know we are in trouble. It’s very important when you are playing straightforward hard rock and metal to have all elements be in place for execution sake. Lostwish are a long way from achieving any attention outside of their homeland based on this.

www.lostwish.com