Xandria – Eclipse

Xandria – Eclipse
Napalm Records
Release date: 07/08/26
Review by: Jon Deaux
8/10

Eclipse is one of the most confident albums by XANDRIA – a record produced by a band that stopped trying to hide behind orchestration and just wrote some solid tunes.

Marco Heubaum has written eleven tracks about the destruction of Western civilization. The scariest part is that a Celtic tin whistle guy was able to secure himself a four-track residency and nobody even tried calling the security.

There’s one thing that is common to symphonic metal – the more, the better: throw as many choirs and as many strings as possible; a guy wearing a cape looking off into the distance as though his Wi-Fi connection is dead and his router is imprisoned somewhere in the dungeon. XANDRIA have been doing great lately after the 2023 ‘reformation’ – the word used by bands meaning that half the band members have left, and no one will try checking LinkedIn. In 2024, the band released a Universal Tales EP – they couldn’t help themselves from producing something – and Eclipse is the true sequel to The Wonders Still Awaiting. There is still a lot of creative gas left in Heubaum, the way there is a lot of evidence left at the crime scene.

I thought I was going to have my usual go at writing a review of this kind of fantasy novel that bought a guitar as a costume. But no, this thing is alive. The fans know the format by now, and in most cases, staying in your lane translates to creativity dead-end, but this band is hungry, ready to embrace external influences without giving it control over everything. The song ‘Colours’ follows the bombastic tradition but uses down-tuned guitars to add a heavy bass part to the composition. It can be called the metal equivalent of a marriage counseling session. The song ‘The Shannon’s Home’ takes the Celtic theme to the fullest, but since the addition of a tin whistle and the presence of a heavier low part prevent the band from turning into a Nightwish tribute act playing busking at a Renaissance festival, it is catchy enough so that I even stopped hating the album for existing. The song ‘Wave of Tanis’ does the same without vanishing into its cathedral again.

Finally, in the song ‘Masquerade,’ the band remembers that there is thrash metal. It uses galloping riffs, drums that try to get out of the mix, and synths that are clever enough to know that it should better stay quiet. This is the only time when this record becomes violent and not sad about democracy, hidden deep in the album like a body discovered in the second act. The song ‘The Last Generation’ uses the milder register of Vourvahis and the children’s choir with decent piano work, making the song more than a ballad.

children’s choir, on the other hand,

After all this restraint, the band releases the leash for the closing track, ‘Lore,’ the 8.5 minutes track that deserves every minute of its length, partially due to the presence of Ally Storch’s violin, the only guest performance on the record that looks like an actual invitation and not some sneak attack.

It seems like Heubaum has the film score genes in his blood, and, this time, he manages to resist the temptation to make every thirty seconds look like two planets colliding

The arrangements breathe. The quiet passages remain quiet. For this genre, that’s like a hostage negotiator calming someone down from the edge of a building. Even the Pink Floyd-esque solo isn’t trying to grab any of your attention. Just being the one who isn’t screaming in the room instantly makes you the most interesting person there, and probably a flight risk.

Vourvahis navigates through soaring melody, feral growl, opera, and straight rock vocals with a fluidity that leaves half of the genre sounding like they’re coasting through life on unemployment benefits. Other vocalists throw out all kinds of techniques for their technique’s sake. She only pulls a vocal move out when her song really starts to bleed, and she needs a doctor instead of a crowd.

The guest list is more impressive than any Hollywood networking event. Storch brings a touch of authentic atmosphere instead of giving the album the vibe of Medieval Times going electronic. McAlbi’s whistles find their way into the Celtic tracks instead of marching in with a kilt and expecting applause. The children’s choir avoids turning most of their tracks into the opener of a Disney haunt show that the park wishes it hadn’t picked up. But I wouldn’t put those children alone in a room with whoever wrote the score for The House with a Whisper – that’s a background check issue.

Lyrically, it seems the band has found something to say besides hinting at dragons – things like democracy, empathy, reason, and the death of civilized discourse, slowly dying in some ditch somewhere. Right now, somewhere, a man is leaving “KEEP POLITICS OUT OF MUSIC” comments on the videos of bands with the balls to do it under a Black Sabbath video with no irony whatsoever in their body, the kind of person who regards self-awareness as a vampire regards tanning booths. XANDRIA never confuses a conviction with a TED Talk. Songwriting is king here, something fewer and fewer bands remember these days.

The key is in discipline. It’s a word I didn’t expect to use while describing a collaboration between two Hollywood composers, Sofia’s own orchestra, children’s choir, Celtic whistles, an invited violinist, and lots of electronics. Lukas Geppert and Ishaan Tyagi – a murder comedy composer and a grave-robbing metaphor composer, via Nobody 2 and Wuthering Heights – somehow manage to turn the “epic” knob all the way without stripping away the underlying metal. Every element gets its place, nothing tries to outdo anyone else for Most Notes Before The Chorus, and it all hangs together because that was always the plan.

The only criticism comes in the fact that some songs are getting so high on their own supply that they turn into straight soundtrack music. Stronger material brings them back.

But Eclipse is symphonic metal done with enough confidence to not hide behind its orchestra anymore – grand, cynical, emotional, and dangerous enough to keep reminding you that the dragons were never the point. While the children’s choir was someone’s terrible idea.
Track list:

1. Syzygy
2. Eclipse
3. Colours
4. The Shannon’s Home
5. The Grand Delusion
6. Wave of Tanis
7. Northstar
8. Masquerade
9. The Last Generation
10. The Poetry of the Real World
11. Lore
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