A Virtual World

A Virtual World is the second album with Erica Ohlsson singing, and the one where Metalite settled into what they are: melodic metal set a short distance into the future. From the title track's virtual world through "Cloud Connected", about people wired to something beyond the clouds, to "Artificial Intelligence", the eleven songs all face the same way. Edwin Premberg remained the writer, as on the two albums before it, and Jacob Hansen mixed and mastered again. Reviews divided here. Metal Express Radio wrote about the wall of sound Hansen builds and the way pop, techno, trance, power metal and neo-classical elements are bound into one package; Spain's Metal Symphony said the band had shown they were capable of stepping out of Amaranthe's shadow. The band collects those notices on their own site. Three singles led the way. "We Bring You the Stars" came on 2 October 2020 — and stayed a standalone single, never reaching the album — then "Peacekeepers" on 27 November, the title track on 15 January 2021 and "Cloud Connected" on 26 February. "Peacekeepers", "Cloud Connected" and "A Virtual World" each carry an official film. Marquee released the Japanese edition two days before the rest of the world, on 24 March 2021, as MICP-11616. "Aftermath" sits at track twelve as a Japan-only bonus, and the band's own release list says so in as many words. The player on this page holds the international eleven, which is why it does not match the Japanese count.