It goes without saying that Jorn Lande is one of the best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal vocalists out there today. Jorn has been with established bands as well as solidifying himself as a solo artist. If you're not familiar with the man and his music, and you're not sure which CD to get, then you have you have a fresh choice with Jorn's latest release Symphonic. Symphonic is a best of, but with classical arrangements added in. The original recordings are there (remixed), but Jorn has gone in and added orchestrations to give the songs new life.
Symphonic pulls from various stages of Jorn's career, and is a nice introduction to folks wanting to hear what Jorn is all about. The cool thing about this release is that it does not include all of the obvious tracks. Jorn hand picked which tracks he thought would best benefit, by the added orchestrations. In my opinion, this is just a glorified best of record, with some added flavor. I'm not saying it is a band thing, but that's all this is. The record sounds good sonically, and will be a great tool to pull in new fans. I'm just not sure this will be special enough for folks that own the entire Jorn catalog, like myself.
Bottom Line: Jorn trying to put a spin on a new best of. Rocking tunes classed up a bit. Fun, but not essential.
Standout Tracks: Mob Rules. I Came to Rock, The World I See and Man of the Dark.
-Ragman didn't know that a crow could play a violin. Intriguing....