Does anyone else just feel like it’s been a bit of a quiet year for power metal so far? Maybe it’s just that the last two years were so unbelievably stacked for the genre that my expectations got thrown out of whack? (Surely, as in every other aspect of life, the line’s gotta keep going up, no?)

Whatever the cause, I’ve struggled to find a power metal album that’s really stuck with me so far this year. The latest candidates to throw their name in the hat on that front? French symphonic power vets Fairyland, who’ve recently returned with album number five, The Story Remains. How’d they do with it?

Before we get into all that, I think Fairyland deserves particular credit for their perseverance. The band’s been through a lot since their last album, Osyrhianta, in 2020. They changed singers. The pandemic happened. And most notably, they suffered the tragic loss of founding songwriter / keyboardist Philippe Giordana, who passed away in 2022. (The Story Remains comprises some of the last material he’d assembled for Fairyland — albeit finished by his surviving bandmates.) It’s no small thing that the band’s survived through all that.

And it sure seems like they realized that, because they certainly come out swinging on The Story Remains. Let’s not mince words: after a brief intro, the album’s second, third, and fourth tracks combine to make one of the strongest 1-2-3 punches you’ll hear in power metal this year. “To Stars and Beyond” opens with cinematic pomp, before giving new vocalist Archie Caine a chance to shine. And shine, the dude does. Where previous vocalist Francesco Cavalieri — also of Wind Rose — brought a gruffer, chestier edge to the band’s sound, Caine grabs the controls, pilots his vocals into the stratosphere and just goes on cruise control. With no disrespect intended toward his predecessor, it almost instantly feels like a much better fit this time out.

“Karma” continues the band’s momentum, maintaining the symphonic spectacle but ratcheting things up to an absolutely feverish pace. The full melodic power of Fairyland is on display here, with powerful performances from both Caine and new keyboardist Gideon Ricardo, on top of a fiendishly catchy chorus. But then, along comes “A New Dawn.” The tempo slows. A folky, flute- and acoustic-guitar-led melody emerges. Caine quiets his voice to what feels like a whisper during the verses, before re-emerging triumphantly during the chorus. A ballad’s probably the last thing you’d expect based on the songs that preceded it, but the band does incredibly well with the pace-change in the end.

And then, unfortunately, Fairyland just… kind of loses the plot. They continue to do a lot of the same things they’ve been doing up to this point — killer production, excellent vocals, an epic sense of spectacle — but their ability to write a satisfying hook seems to vanish into thin air.

Take “Hopeless Still” or “Samsara.” The songs have absolutely killer intros, and really shift the albums into “dark mode” — with a palpable sense of urgency, and a feeling of unspoken, sinister things forthcoming. The band still sparkles! Caine still sounds great! Every other part of both songs feels like it’s really taking you places, and then the choruses… just wind up jogging in place, as if the guys forgot how to write refrains altogether. An album that started off so focused, and so clearly in “statement-of-intent” mode suddenly feels lost, meandering in search of a moment even half as catchy as any during its early-going.

The sense of aimlessness, sadly, comes to a head during Story’s final stretch. On “Unbreakable,” Fairyland pulls out every stop it can to position the tune as the album’s show-stopping epic. We get a cinematic intro and then a genuine rush when the full band enters at Mach speed a couple of minutes later. And then, in desperate search of a triumphant chorus hook, the band manages to hit every spot on the dart board except the bullseye. Over ten-plus minutes, nothing sticks. And following this with a pointless, nine-minute orchestral medley of the-album-so-far (as on “Postscript”) means they know nothing’s sticking. Hopeless, still.

But wait! If that wasn’t enough, the band brings back original vocalist Elisa C. Martín to wrap things with “Suffering Ages,” a song that sounds nothing like Fairyland. Because — ah-hah! — it’s not actually Fairyland; it’s a cover of a song by Hamka, the band Martín’s in with lone-remaining-Fairyland-OG Willdric Lievin and drummer JB Pol. To be fair, it’s not bad! (Certainly not in the wake of Story’s, uh… final two-thirds.) But like… closing an album that’s ostensibly a tribute to a fallen bandmate… with a song from a band he was never a part of? What’s the point?

In the end, The Story Remains stands out less as a poor album and more as a truly baffling one. I’m struggling to recall a deeper collapse — outside of, like… sports — or to fully understand how and why it happened. It would have been a great story for Fairyland to return triumphantly and utterly nail this album for Giordana, but sadly, they haven’t done.

The search continues.

Keep it heavy,
—Dan

---

The Story Remains is available now via Frontiers Music Srl. For more information on Fairyland, visit the band’s Facebook page.