Last year an album had been released of which most of you have not heard so far, and one could find almost no review at all on the net, only some online shops which had the album on sale. And I really cannot recall reading about it in the Metal magazines…. Of course I have not read all of them, and for sure I just missed the issue bringing the review of the album. So this should be a band which has really not achieved much with this album, an album which is not that good that one should waste any time writing about it.

If that the case, I am doing something completely useless or I must have a good reason. And a damn good one it is indeed. The Finnish band CARDIANT have delivered a first class Power Metal album called “Midday Moon” which surprisingly had been ignored or overlooked by the media. I mean, significantly more fuss has been made for bands and albums which would have not deserved as much as CARDIANT did. But that is something that happens quite often.

To poise you a bit more, I dare to say that “Midday Moon” is one of the best Power Metal albums released in 2005 A.D. And if we are to talk about Power Metal bands coming from Finland, we could name a few, I guess. One would think of THUNDERSTONE, (early) STRATOVARIUS, CELESTY, SONATA ARCTICA, ALTARIA an so on, when we examine the influences CARDIANT reveal. But actually it is enough to state that we are offered top-notch Power Metal a la carte. Sometimes faster, sometimes slower, melodic with impressing choruses that stick to your ears right from the start, and very good musicianship. The guys offer their best and what is more important: with heart and soul. To all of this comes a vocal performance which could have become the trade mark of the band.

Could have?! Yes, unfortunately, cause the lead singer performing on this album is and was not the vocalist of the band. Sounds weird? It happened that the former lead singer having some medical problems and was not able to sing on the album, was replaced by a session singer (Janne Saksa) who was asked to sing on the album. And I can well imagine that the guys were not disappointed by the abilities displayed.

In the meantime, the band has found a new singer and presently is working on a new album. Coming back to “Midday Moon” I could of course analyze each and every song on the record but that would not make much sense since all the songs are very good. They are mostly faster ones, but slower acts can be found as well, like “Hackneyed Dream” or the instrumental ones called “Raining Pt. 1 & 2”.

As mentioned this line up is not existing anymore, which makes the album even more unique and offers another good reason for you to hear this exceptional record. It is worth it!!! (Online May 22, 2006)