The Finnish melodic heavy metal band mYON was formed in 1995 in Oulu and released their decent debut album Heaven’s Garden in 1999 through Noise records. Now, more than three years later the band is finally back with a new album, this time on Low Frequency records. The creation of the album took over two years and production had to be delayed due to a serious defect found in singer Sami Huotari’s larynx.

mYON is one of those bands that show that melodic metal is on the rise again. Ghost In Paradise is an album filled with catchy and melodic songs that on the one hand sound sincere and on the other hand refreshing. The band has definitely managed to create their own sound and don’t just try to copy Dream Theater or Fates Warning. The music is not overly complex, which makes the album an easy listening experience, although the relatively high level of repetition slightly brings some of the songs down.

While singer Huotari recovered from his vocal chord problems, his voice sounds nevertheless quite weak and it takes some time to get used to his sometimes ‘funky’ sounding vocals. Don’t get me wrong, he certainly does a good job but sometimes it feels like he could do better; at least more powerful. Of course mYON realizes that Huotari still faces some obstacles on his road to full recovery and has recruited Jukka Nummi to replace him during live gigs.

Ghost In Paradise is a good melodic metal album with many refreshing moments and good guitar riffs. It is definitely a safe buy if you are into melodic metal.