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Seventh album from The Netherlands' Imperia and essentially a continuation from their last one, 2021's The Last Horizon. At this point in their 20+ year career, Imperia have their chops and songwriting down pat, and Dark Paradise is a great sounding symphonic album with plenty of cinematic sweep and a touch of gothic atmosphere. The songwriting is solid but frankly a bit rote, hitting familiar symphonic metal hallmarks like Celtic-style reel riffs ("The Family Chain"), Middle Eastern melodies ("Soldiers of Hell") and torch song ballads for singer Helena Michaelsen to show off her impressive vocals. She covers the spectrum from beauty and the beast to operatic easily and gracefully, though the strange warbling on "Void of Emptiness" leaves me scratching my head. Dark Paradise is a perfectly listenable symphonic metal album held back only by the fact that it sounds like so many other albums out there, including previous Imperia efforts, that it doesn't do much to separate itself in a wide ocean of choices. If your CD shelf is stuffed with releases from Nightwish, Epica, Leaves' Eyes and the like, you will enjoy Dark Paradise, but I don't know how soon it will replace any of your favorites.