1. Oceanborn (1998)

Country: Finland

Oceanborn (1998, Spinefarm)

Style: Power metal with female vocals, some folk elements

I had been hearing a lot about this band and after reading glowing five-star reviews, I decided to check them out myself and blindly ordered their two full-length albums that were available at the time. Was it worth it? A lukewarm maybe is in order. You see, the music is excellent (despite the lame adaptation of Rainbow's "Snowman" in "Walking in the Air"), it is reasonably well performed, the production is professional, and the arrangements are amazing. So what's the problem? It's the vocalist. Yeah, yeah, I know she's a woman and I know that I am a confessed sinner there, but Tarja just does not do it for me. Her style is too operatic and feels a bit contrived, and her voice is too gutteral (I hear this is the "right" way to sing), and the pronounciation which is far from ideal is only made worse by this. The songs are mostly fast, with some folk elements thrown in for good measure. There're pervasive lyrical sidebars, which can get tiresome and the song structure can be repetitive, but since most of these shortcomings are built into the style and since many fans find them to be the strong suit of the power genre, I won't dwell on this any further.

Verdict: if you absolutely want another great power metal band, you should check it out but not before you make sure your tolerance levels for the vocals are high enough.