Lost Horizon

Awakening the World (Koch)
by Martin Popoff

Taking a page from In Extremo, Crimson Glory and lost ’80s yuksters Warrior (the Canadian/Yugoslav one), Lost Horizon don the warpaint and flowing finery of power metal fromage in creation of an image that should garner the band a few larfing barfing reviews.

Lost Horizon are one branch of the Highlander tree (or should I say, mighty oak, gathering place of The Ancient Order of Druids, down by the stream, heather and dale), a band that also begat Hammerfall, and they are very thankful for being perched and poised to fight for true metal along with 70 or 80 other dead-identical bands. So thankful, in fact, the CD booklet features six pages of Thank You’s. Awakening The World is a cogent and frothful enough gallop, the band taking forever in the studio to get everything just right, save for any semblance of identity. So, er, the band back up the visuals with solid power goo; it’s just that the whole genre is a joke. And by the way, power metal as a whole isn’t as “heavy metal” as all that nü metal we gleefully trash, nü metal being scads “heavier” visually, lyrically, rhythmically, vocally – you name it – than the frilly-sleeved concerto rock misnomered as “power” metal.