Finlands delivers a solid album with many tracks that give me the same feeling as my favorite anime opening songs, while keeping it fresh with interesting arrangements and sounds, such as the ending to Rendezvous and the opening to Balk. The vocals are characterized by the very recognizable squeaking high notes, which are bound to be hit or miss for some; HEAT and Silver use it so much as to almost cross the line between tolerable and annoying, but for the most part, it's done very well. ... read more
Don't get me wrong, this isn't my favorite Illenium album at all and I'm still conflicted on where I would rank it of the four, but I honestly think people are generally harder on Illenium than he deserves. I think my favorite thing about this album is that it revisits a lot of variations in Illenium's sound over the years, and that it combines that with more rock elements than in the past, albeit not enough to sound more like rock than edm. The extra emphasis on guitars, the way they sound/are ... read more
Signal Fires is certainly a standout work for being a debut EP. Short but concise, every song serves a purpose with what I would call a "cinematic trap" sort of sound. Rise is the first example of the thundering pianos and bouncing strings that are reminiscent of what you might imagine for a film score, which contrasts with simple but effective leads that are surprisingly hella catchy. The drums aren't quite top tier, and the ending to the last song feels like it gets cut off, but ... read more
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Recent Review Comments
On fugitivesleigh9's review of ILLENIUM - ILLENIUM
"dude learn to take a step back from the bias towards your own super favs... Drwn did not "ruin" the original, that song still exists and is a separate thing, doesn't warrant getting so offended in this case. It does play part of one line at points, but most of the song is based on the vocal heavily manipulated into new melodies with no intelligible words. It's a completely different song going for a different vibe than the original as well. He made it into his own thing, which isn't affected by how much you actually enjoy it or not, which of course you don't need to"
On sameulc21's review of ILLENIUM - ILLENIUM
"I do appreciate he tends to get some way less known vocalists to be put alongside much better known names"
On ShadeRD's review of ILLENIUM - ILLENIUM
"True I don't love this compared to all his others but he still shows a baseline level of competentcy and experience and there's nothing offensive or magnificently bad like what a 20/30 should be"
On QUIET BISON - Dawn
"Swim swim swish swish"
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