Leading Lightly

If metal was a war, Engel would be the reinforcements coming in for the Swedish melodic death front. This five-piece band has its roots planted firmly in that camp and finds itself picking up in the wake of In Flames. This makes perfect sense if you consider that Engel guitarist Niclas Engelin was just made a full member of In Flames this year and has also played in Gardenian. The band’s second effort is called "Threnody," and is named appropriately for a few reasons…

Music is a universal language. It transcends linguistic and (most) cultural borders. Yet it is not nationless or without idiosyncrasies determined by place and local culture. There are, therefore, instruments which are more closely associated with a particular place than with another. This does not apply just to folk instruments (as the Scottish bagpipes, the Spanish guitar, or the Russian balalaika, to name but few) but also to instruments which are fully part of the “international” musical panorama and of the Classical Symphony Orchestra. Thus, the violin is by no means a “local” instrument; yet, there is a closeness between Hungarian/gipsy music and the violin which is lacking elsewhere. Similarly, the flute is as universal an instrument as there can be (it is probably the most common instrument in all epochs and cultures), but it has a privileged relationship with France.

Fortepiano phenomenon Kristian Bezuidenhout begins his multi-volume traversal of Mozart’s music for solo keyboard.