After spending the '90s as Highlander, they re-formed in 1998 as Lost Horizon, cut demos and caught a record deal. With their stallion-mane hair, bare chests and Braveheart face paint; they utilized nearly every recording studio in Gothenburg, Sweden, to track Awakening The World. They sought the best vortices for their overdubs. Or maybe it was a budget thing.
Without apology to James Hilton, Lost Horizon put together a quintessential Euro power metal album. The musicianship is Cirque du Soleil orchestra pit perfect. The guitar sounds are exemplary. They crank, cluck and chop through infrequent chord changes while the lead guitar carries its burden with dizzying note ululations and gymnastics. The bass is non-existent as is normal for the genre.
Then there are the keyboards, the element separating Euro power metal from the American genus. Awakening The World is drenched in clouds of the best string sounds that the keyboards of 2000 could oscillate. The songs swim like dolphins beneath waves of string patches. They were not shy with high bell patches either. As if to warm up the keyboards' circuits, Lost Horizon uses opening and ending soundscapes in the manner that Broadway shows once used entrance and exit themes.
The vocals are squeaky-clean and often spiral up to Bruce Dickinsonian heights. Vocal coaches use this kind of perfection for their demos. The admirable vocals address well the rigors of the genre. Unfortunately the vocals are then used to utter Nordic fantasy lyrics so vapid that they might trigger PTSD fits in many a recovered Dungeons and Dragons player.
Still, Euro power metal uses its lyrical insipidity to slake the needs of the fan base. There are unintended consequences in the video-game lyrics; they set the genre apart from the rest of the metal world. In their way, they’re rebellious. Concerned parenthood across Europe need not worry though that Satan lurks anywhere in the word mash-ups.
Lost Horizon sold 20,000 copies of Awakening The World in the first weeks of it release. iTunes wasn't around then, so 20,000 is a respectable number. They toured the local Scandinavian circuit then quickly went back into the studios of Gothenburg to record their follow-up epic.
On lonely long-distance hauls from Spokane to Calgary perhaps, truckers might've heard tracks from Lost Horizon's Awakening The World power out of their FM radios. With this reissue, they may enjoy that guilty pleasure once more.
(released January 31, 2012 on The End Records)
