Description
Ghost Town + Soli Deo Gloria CD-bundle:
• CD in jewelcase – Ghost Town (Studio album from 2023)
• 2xCDs in jewelcase – Soli Deo Gloria (Double-CD Compilation album from 2021)
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Ghost Town
Album release: March 17th 2023
Twenty-seven years into a career that continues to grow, Swedish metal band Narnia takes huge steps into an exciting chapter with the new album ’Ghost Town’. The seasoned five-some once again shows how to shape a masterpiece with this melodic metal future classic.
On the ninth studio album, ’Ghost Town’, Narnia has picked the icing on the cake from its vast catalog. You can’t simply label this album a neoclassic metal album or a power metal album, even though these elements are present. There are also parts that are progressive, modern, heavy, or just creatively different. But you can summarize by saying this is well-crafted piece of classic and melodic metal.
Co-founder, guitarist, and producer CJ Grimmark is the crucial architect of the band’s sound, and also its primary songwriter along with co-founder and lead singer Christian Liljegren and bassist Jonatan ”Jono” Samuelsson. Through well formulated lyrics and melodies created to enhance the music, the songwriting team has explored new modes of expression that are well represented in songs such as ’Thief’, with its dramatic arrangement, anxiety-laden, expressive imagery, and the progressive ’Modern Day Pharisees’, a song dealing with the subject of hypocrisy.
The title track, ’Ghost Town’, was first introduced to the cheering live-audience at Sweden Rock Festival 2022 and is now an obvious part of the set list with its bombastic four on the floor-pulse and sing along chorus. The heartbeat of Narnia, Andreas “Habo” Johansson, does a tremendous job behind the drums, and spares no energy.
Martin Härenstam and his keyboards have been given a large but tasteful space on the record, and range in sound from vintage synths to grand piano.
The record’s neoclassical gem, ’Rebel’, with a nod to the band’s earliest influences, should appeal to longtime fans. But also, more immediate songs like the soon-to-be crowd pleasers ’Hold On’, ’Wake Up Call’, and ’Alive’. ’Descension’, on the other hand, is more progressive, but there is a constant and clear common thread throughout the entire production that ties it together brilliantly.
’Out of the Silence’ picks up where 2019’s ’The War That Tore the Land’ left off as the album’s only ballad. Featured by Saviour Machine’s frontman Eric Clayton, who reads the Lord’s prayer with his deep baritone operatic voice.
’Glory Daze’ is perhaps the album’s heaviest song, which also addresses one of today’s biggest problems: Stress and chasing the wind. Something that Liljegren himself experienced during a burnout.
– Different songs will appeal to different people lyrically, but we cover a variety of topics throughout the album, and I’m sure people will be able to relate to them, both musically and spiritually. Some of these songs stand out a bit from our previous repertoire, but without abandoning our historical influences. Liljegren explains and continues:
– This is an album with a positive message combined with bombastic music. You can’t have one without the other when it comes to Narnia. Liljegren concludes.
Lyrics that make you reflect combined with the broad musical breadth the band possesses, along with a solid production, is Narnia’s musical trademark which runs throughout the entire album.
If the latest studio album ’From Darkness to Light’ from 2019 marked the way, ’Ghost Town’ is a more than worthy sequel with a life of its own.
“Ghost Town” is produced by CJ Grimmark, mixed by the band”s sound engineer Viktor Stenquist, and mastered by Thomas Piec Johansson. It will be available on all digital platforms, CD, and vinyl on March 17th, 2023, in collaboration with Sound Pollution Distribution.
Tracking list:
01. Rebel
02. Thief
03. Hold On
04. Glory Daze
05. Descension
06. Ghost Town
07. Alive
08. Modern Day Pharisees
09. Out of the Silence
10. Wake Up Call
Line up:
- Christian Liljegren – Vocals
- CJ Grimmark – Guitar, backing vocals
- Jonatan “Jono” Samuelsson – Bass, backing vocals
- Martin Härenstam – Keyboards
- Andreas “Habo” Johansson – Drums
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Soli Deo Gloria
Album release: November 5th 2021
Soli Deo Gloria from 2021 is the band’s second compilation-album.
Narnia sums up its first 25 years with the compilation album: ’Soli Deo Gloria’, a collection of 30 songs that show the band’s wide range and long experience of being established as one of the best melodic metal bands on the metal scene. Songs from the first album ‘Awakening’ to the latest studio album ‘From Darkness to Light’ along with bonus tracks from different album versions, clearly shows how the band has managed to maintain a high level throughout its history and at the same time, how to hungrily strive for a promising future.
Meanwhile, the band’s ninth studio album is in the making and scheduled for release in 2022 — this is a great introduction to the band for new listeners, as it is a gold mine for current fans to revisit favorites and discover lesser-known songs.
’Soli Deo Gloria’ was released on double-CD, and digitally on November 5th, and distributed by Sound Pollution.
LINKS:
Album: https://smarturl.it/N013CD
Video-teaser by Dany Gatica: https://youtu.be/66R_dl_BwmQ
Tracking list:
CD 1:
01. A Crack in the Sky
02. You Are the Air That I Breathe
03. Has the River Run Dry?
04. MNFST
05. The War That Tore the Land
06. Reaching for the Top (Live in Brazil)
07. I Still Believe
08. On the Highest Mountain
09. Thank You
10. Sail Around the World
11. Scared
12. One Way to Freedom
13. Into This Game
14. People of the Blood Red Cross
15. Another World
16. Enter the Gate
17. Back from Hell (Live in Germany)
CD 2:
01. Inner Sanctum (Live in Brazil)
02. The Witch and the Lion
03. Falling from the Throne
04. Revolution of Mother Earth
05. Living Water (2017 Version featuring Jens Johansson)
06. Shelter Through the Pain (Live in Brazil)
07. The Mission
08. Dangerous Game
09. Miracle (Japan bonus track)
10. Long Live the King (Live in Brazil)
11. Break the Chains
12. No More Shadows from the Past (Live in Brazil)
13. The Awakening (Live in Brazil)
Line up 1996-2021:
Christian Liljegren – Vocals
CJ Grimmark – Guitars & backing vocals
Andreas “Habo” Johansson – Drums
Martin Härenstam – Keyboards
Jakob Persson – Bass
Andreas Passmark – Bass
Germán Pascal – Vocals
Linus Kåse – Keyboards
Jonatan Samuelsson – Bass, Taurus bass pedals & backing vocals
