ASTRAL DOORS – Notes From The Shadows

Astral Doors is a Swedish Melodic Metal band, and Notes From The Shadows is their 7^th release to date.  Off hand, when you listen to this new album, you hear nothing “bad” anywhere within its 11 tracks. There’s good drumming, solid guitar work, cool keyboard accentuations, and Nils Patrik Johansson is a capable vocalist.  However, there’s something “missing” in this latest release.  On a track-by-track basis, all songs are individually enjoyable … but, strung together, the track-by-track enjoyment plateaus, and the songs lose individualism.  Perhaps the only pinpoint-able reason is that Johansson’s voice is too strong in the production mix.