MORGANA LEFAY – Grand Materia

Some of you will certainly remember the Swedish band MORGANA LEFAY that was able to notch up some success in the middle of the Nineties with outstanding records like The Secret Doctrine, Sanctified or Maleficium. Back then already it differed from the bands of its time because of an idiosyncratic, completely independent interpretation of Power-Metal, linked with unobtrusively progressive elements and an inimitable story-telling atmosphere. In 1997 the band's career had to go through a crucial change when three of the original members left MORGANA LEFAY. Only vocalist Charles Rytkönen and guitarist Tony Eriksson were left of the band and carried on with new musicians under the name LEFAY with Noise Records in 1998. The three ex-colleagues recorded a (rather lukewarm) album under the old label Black Mark, which actually didn't have much to do with the original material anymore. For many fans this meant: the true band MORGANA LEFAY is dead! Nevertheless Charles and Tony weren't lazy with LEFAY and after all released two quite decent records (The Seventh Seal, 1999 and S.O.S., 2000). Stylistically they tried to tie up to the line of MORGANA LEFAY, but the records aren't able to continuously convey the atmosphere of the earlier days of the band. Then everything became quiet around LEFAY. Until recently nothing was heard about them except for a few smaller gigs in Sweden. All the same, in the beginning of 2004 the band was forming ideas for a concept-album and started working on it under the work-title Grand Materia. So it was just the right moment to get in contact with the original label Black Mark by chance and to be offered a new contract which was signed right away. At last they were allowed to be called MORGANA LEFAY again. The base of another album was solid now, and the work for Grand Materia shifted into the serious phase.
Now we are holding the new album in our hands. For the cover-artwork Kristian Wålin (Necrolord) once more was signed. In his concept he is referring to the earlier work he had done for the band and created a motif for Grand Materia that has to be mentioned in quality and atmosphere right away together with the artwork for the album The Secret Doctrine. But the album is meant to be more then just a satisfaction for our nostalgic feelings. The record opens with the title track Grand Materia, which is a melodic mid-tempo song with a good sing-along chorus and excellent progressive drumming. No doubt this song will become one of the highlights of future MORGANA LEFAY concerts. Charles' vocals have to be mentioned here in a very positive way, too; they are theatrical and intoxicating as in his best times, but never antiquated or anaemic. It takes less then these scarcely six minutes to get us into the story. The album continues with My Funeral Is Calling, which starts in an ominous way with clean guitars, but rapidly shifts into a furious thrash-attack. A chorus full of desperate rage and some soft parts create a wonderful contrast. This and the brilliant solo in the middle-part of the song are clearly showing that the musicians improved their skills while they seemed to be inactive. The third song Only Endless Time Remains is probably the calmest one MORGANA LEFAY have ever written. But by no means can it be called toothless: the song is a beautiful ballad without any screaming. Just in the end, the climax of the song, it explodes into distorted guitar-sounds. The ballad presents the emotional side of Charles, who again proves the outstanding use of his vocal capabilities. Threatening but plain begins Hollow and soon turns into another track that is made to be sang along; and its heavy riffing and pounding rhythm will probably be responsible for one or another neck fracture ;). We don't want to go into each of the twelve songs now, but we have to mention that all of them are of very high quality and that there are no fillers or B-sides to be found on this album. Still, especially worth mentioning are the following: On The Other Side is a half-ballad, which stylistically can be compared with songs like The Mirror or Alley Of Oaks and will surely become a classic; and Angel's Deceit, a brisk up-tempo-track with a catchy chorus and coherent vocals, which is definitely the most modern song that MORGANA LEFAY have written till today (and we don't think this to be a negative point, highly appreciating the fact that we certainly won't find any elements of New-Metal here!). The album is rounded off by the depressive, doom-evoking and dragging My Task Is Done that leaves the listener after living through all kinds of emotions for almost 60 minutes in a thoughtful condition and the urge to enjoy this thrilling musical journey once more.
In its concept Grand Materia deals with the biography of the alchemist who found the Philosopher's Stone and became immortal. He has to learn that the immortality of one human being (himself) severely hits the seemingly eternal base of time, so that the survival of mankind as a whole is jeopardized. He realizes that only his own death will turn away the final catastrophe from his species. The limited digipak-release of the album contains an extensive booklet that presents the complete tale written by Charles Rytkönen in a wonderful translation. The music of Grand Materia captures the spirit of the story very well and therefore even without the strong connection to it would seem to be of a piece. One gets the impression that this is a synthesis of the arts, which can by all means be seen as a plea for the finiteness of human life. It is for certain that MORGANA LEFAY worked out a big hit with this album. No doubt Grand Materia is one of their strongest releases, if not the strongest. We hope that we will hear quite a lot from this band in the future and we wish that they will finally be as successful as it is due to them since ten years already. Hey folks, honestly: to which band should we begrudge its success less than MORGANA LEFAY?