With their excellent debut Midday Moon, Finnish Power Metal band Cardiant clearly did not meet the success it deserved. This is mostly due to the fact the album was most unfortunately only released in Japan. They since signed with another label, and could properly release their second album, Tomorrow’s Daylight. The album is sadly not even close to matching the high standards reached with their previous effort.

After a change of lead vocals (Janne Saksa was replaced by Erik Karhatsu, a former competitor in the Finnish reality-show “Idols”), the band obviously decided to also change their direction. They thus bartered their calm yet somehow powerful enough and truly unique sound for a more generic and, yes, commercial approach. There is nothing wrong with wanting to make easy-to-get-into music, but at least make it catchy!

This is not a bad album per se. But the product delivered here is just what you can expect from yet another radio-friendly power metal band. There is nothing really well thought out in that album, or inspired, or that does not feel generic. Oh, you’ll find moments here and there, true. For instance, the “poppish” chorus of Diamondstar can be stuck in your head for a moment. Or the opening riff of Morning No More, which reminds me a little bit (but only a little) of their previous album Midday Moon. Or the electro beats that you’ll find in Somehow, which as far as I am concerned are not a nice touch at all, but at least make the song stand out from the rest.

Now there is no need to bash Cardiant too hard on this one. Especially since they clearly seem to have a bit of a hard time to find their path and the music they really want to produce. Furthermore, the fact they struggled to find a label is most definitely a reason for the drastic and sudden change of sound, especially to make it more profitable.

All we can do now is hope their next album will be closer to what you could find in the beautiful Midday Moon, an album I can only recommend to your ears, contrary to this one.