Cain's Offering – Gather The Faithful

Releasedate: 28-08-2009; Label: Frontiers Records
By: Lara Cappelli

Cain’s Offering is what guitarist Jani Liimatainen has been working on after his departure from Sonata Arctica in 2007. The band is now formed by different musicians such as Timo Kotipelto (Stratovarius) on the vocals, Mikko Harkin (ex Sonata Arctica, Mehida, Solution.45) on the keyboard, Jukka Koskinen (Norther, Wintersun) on the bass and Jani Hurula (Paul Di’Anno) on the drums.

As soon as I read about the line up of the band I was extremely intrigued by this album since I wondered what musicians of this caliber could create, together. And the fruit of this collaboration goes beyond my expectations. Of course there’s a Sonata Arctica mark in the album, but Jani Liimatainen definitely has put something of his own in it. All the ten songs that compose it made me undertake an intense music journey, with speedy songs as well as some ballads. And it is in ballads where I loved Timo Kotipelto’s voice the most, like in “Into the Blue”. The fastest songs are “My Queen of Winter”, “Oceans of Regret”, “Dawn of Solace” and “Stolen Waters” even if you can find great melodies in these ones as well as in the rest of the album.
There is a certain kindness that I found in all songs, even when I thought I arrived to the fastest passage of the album, there was this kind of harmony, pretty relaxing. And the album is successfully completed right by that kindness in the ballad “Elegantly Broken”.

A hundred of thumbs-up!

Links:
Cain’s Offering MySpace
Cain’s Offering Official