If you thought we’d gone away, we merely took a couple of days off and here we are again, with a stunner from Eye of Melian, an international quartet with two Finnish members. which was released just before Christmas and which perfectly complements the #1 Song of the Year 2024 from our article a couple of weeks ago.
Why? Well that was by Auri, which is fronted vocally by Johanna Kurkela and she is also the main vocalist here as well as being part of Altamullan Road.
Although she didn’t form the band (that was by Martijn Westerholt, whose experience was mainly with metal bands [keys] and Robin La Joy, a American fan of fantasy novels and especially the work of Tolkien [lyrics and backing vocals – and Melian is a Tolkien character] – Kurkela joined later along with compatriot Mikko P. Mustonen) – there is additional influence I’m sure from Kurkela and also from the fantasy inspiration of Kurkela’s husband, Nightwish founder, keyboardist and writer Tuomas Holopainen.
Not only that; there are also occasional guest contributions from Troy Donockley, who is a member of both Auri and Nightwish.
There is a kinship about musicians and especially those in Finland or attached to bands there that is admirable.
And all of this inspiration is on show here in this formidable piece, ‘Symphonia Arcana’, the second single from Eye of Melian’s second album ‘Forest of Forgetting’, which will be released on 20th February 2026 on the oddly named Napalm Records.
It is cinematic in nature, epic, opulent, enchanting and haunting; all at the same time and has all the qualities you would expect from an assembly of this stature, and the violin bridge in particular is exceptional.
The only little concern I have – and as a fan of this variety of music – is that some of the compositions are starting to sound too similar to each other.
If someone had said to me that they wanted me to listen to a track by Auri that just failed to make the cut for its most recent album and then played ‘Symphonia Arcana’, I would have believed them.
In the same way, lyrics like “Come heed this mysterious symphony of another universe” might have been taken straight from the Nightwish songbook.
Don’t interpret that as a dislike. This is impressive music written and delivered by great talents.
I’m just wondering how long fans will slavishly follow artists around different bands before they start to complain that what they are hearing isn’t sufficiently divergent from what they heard a few minutes previously from another outfit entirely.
And I suppose that begs the bigger question of whether symphonic based folk, rock and metal is starting to run out of steam, as progressive rock did 50 years ago, and needs a reboot.
But that’s for another time.
Find them on:
Website: https://eyeofmelian.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eyeofmelian
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eyeofmelian_official/
