cain's offering is jani liimatainen's first solo album, but is more of a finnish supergroup with tomi kotipelto of stratovarius on vocals, mikko harkin (ex-sonata arctica) on keys, and jukka koskinen of norther/wintersun on bass.
1.my queen of winter
a great melody opens 'gather the faithful', and my hopes for this album are already realized. the lyrics are charming and i think the best on the album. fast tempo. sounds like a mix of early sonata arctica with new stratovarius.
2.more than friends
a love song, like most songs on this album, about unrequited love. the chorus has a nice vocal melody and kotipelto puts in a nice amount of variation to keep the choruses memorable. slower pace, and heavier than the opener. there is an instrumental interlude with really great bass work.
3.oceans of regret
one of the best tracks, and one of the longest. here we first hear jani's guitar hegemony with a nice solo towards the end of the track. by now you'll notice that mikko seems to get more attention than jani-- i was hoping for each track to be full of jani's solos. the vocals have good melody, but i don't really like the lyrics themselves (kotipelto is complaining about some lady who "hurts me just because you can")
4.gather the faithful
the album's eponym is an instrumental track full of orchestral bombast. short, but lively and progressive.
5.into the blue
a slower ballad, with a repetitive chorus, but kotipelto pours enough emotion into his singing for you to not mind the repetition.
6.dawn of solace
a chipper song, but pretty standard when it comes to power metal. the lyrics are similar to oceans of regret, so yeah. good solos, i was more impressed by mikko's.
7.thorn in my side,
in my opinion, the weakest track of the album. nothing makes this one stick out, and i find myself skipping over this one frequently. oh, and there are these annoying digital drums that make this song seem way too electronic for its own good.
8.morpheus in a masquerade
a rival with oceans of regret and my queen of winter for best song on the album, and it's also the longest at 6:45. plenty of variation and tempo changes. more solos by jani make this track all the more worthwile. a waltzy atmosphere matching the lyrics makes this song quite playful.
9.stolen waters
an average song compared to what we've heard so far, but jani's solo saves it from mediocrity. i also like the name, so that makes it better than thorn in my side.
10.elegantly broken
a beautiful ballad led by mikko on piano with kotipelto sining wonderfully. the way he sings the song's title lyric at the end ("together we will be, so elegantly broken") makes the entire song. its the shortest song at 2:45, but every second is valuable.
on the whole, a great, happy power metal album, my only complaint is the songs all had too similar a feeling and not enough variation on the whole in terms of tempo, heaviness, and lyrical content. also, i wanted jani's guitarwork to stand out a whole lot more. i mean, considering he left sonata arctica and now has a chance to do his own music, i would have expected him to have more inspiring guitar work in the songs. after a couple of listens, the songs become addictive.
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