Artist: Fogalord
Release Title: Masters of War
Year: 2017
Label: Limb Music
Genre: Symphonic Power Metal
Tracklisting:
1.Il racconto della tempesta
2.Rising Through the Mist of Time
3.Daughter of the Morning Light
4.Masters of War
5.By the Everspring Tree
6.The Storm of Steel
7.Absence of Light
8.When the Blizzard Awakes
9.In Everwinter Wait
10.The Gift of the White Lady
11.The Sword's Will
Coming onboard with renewed intensity, Italian symphonic power metal newcomers Fogalord quickly took the scene by storm and formed this newfound hero in a scene that all comes from them incorporating more of their trademarked elements into their newest effort. Now after a five-year gap following their initial appearance, the groups’ sophomore release was initially released June 2, 2017 on Limb Music.
Much like their past efforts, the group is simply intent on offering the attack from a strong series of epic rhythms that add plenty of greatness to their approach. This is based around the tight, flowing riffing here that propels this one along at rapid paces by offering an endless series of fiery speed metal riff-work in the greatest sense of the bands’ past. The rhythms are fast, vicious and built for glorious harmonies when utilized in conjunction with the blistering drum-work and shimmering keyboards that are draped all over the music here that adds an overwhelming atmosphere of epic grandeur that makes for a fun time. Even more impressive is the fact that these are put to the fullest test on a ten-minute-plus epic that enables every facet of their sound to be put to the test with plenty of exciting and enjoyable moments spread throughout which really ratchets up the enjoyment here for including such an enjoyable piece here. While these here are the overwhelming factors on display here, there’s a slight discrepancy here in the album dropping in intensity for bland mid-tempo gallops that just don’t have any kind of impact like the previous tracks, making for a somewhat lessening approach than normal and causes this one to lose a lot of its steam during the middle of the album where all those tracks are placed. Spreading them out on the album would’ve been preferable, yet that’s still an obvious factor about this one.
Filled with plenty of ravishing symphonic goodness and making up for only a few minor flaws ends up working rather well for the band here by enabling this one to come up with plenty of enjoyable moments throughout here that this becomes another notch for a promising act in the symphonic power metal realm.
Artist: Ruins of Elysium
Release Title: Seeds of Chaos and Serenity
Year: 2017
Label: Self-Released/Independent
Genre: Symphonic Power Metal
Tracklisting:
1.Kama Sutra
2.Shadow of the Colossus
3.Serpentarius
4.Beyond the Witching Hour
5.Iris
6.The Birth of a Goddess
7.Seeds of Chaos and Serenity
Continuing to uphold their past success, international symphonic metallers Ruins of Elysium have brought their epic sound and capabilities to offer even more bombast and grandeur into their material than their previous efforts. Taking a concept approach around the anime Sailor Moon for their epic title track, the groups’ sophomore full-length was self-released April 4, 2017.
Similar to their previous effort, the band is once again in full-on bombastic and glory mode throughout this one offering a stellar look into their formula. This here is built primarily around the grandiose tempos, featuring lightning-fast riffing and barreling drumming that is completely overshadowed by the bombastic keyboards that offer the over-the-top theatrics customary within the genre. It runs through these efforts with reckless abandon as the histrionics from the music match the spoken tales of glory and heroism that is captured expertly by these over-the-top rhythms giving this one the kind of driving attitude that works for the most part. That gets held up by the one detrimental, overriding flaw here in the overriding and truly bombastic epic at the end, going on far longer than necessary to really prove it’s point and making for a truly exhaustive ending more than anything. The dedication to go for something like this, a massive mini-album in its own right as the five-track suite makes for a fun enough representation of their work anyway beyond going through the motions of what’s on offer elsewhere on the album, yet the fact that it just goes on endlessly as the five movements clock in around regular-length tracks anyway and it just makes the album a drag to have to get through in order to experience it all. Though it’s fun enough, the daunting feel and approach are what somewhat lower this one.
As there’s one huge, nearly overwhelming effort holding this one back somewhat, it’s a little lower than what it should be as the rest of this one is some rather impressive symphonic-styled power metal that’s featured here make this a must for any fan of the style or can celebrate the excess within.
Artist: Skylark
Release Title: The Princess' Day
Year: 2001
Label: Underground Symphony
Genre: Symphonic Power Metal
Tracklisting:
1.The Princess' Day
2.I Will Cry Tonight
3.Journey Through the Fire
4.Another Life
5.Hope (Intro)
6.Rufus (Part 1)
7.Symbol of Freedom (Part 2)
8.The Tragedy
9.White Warrior
10.Princess of the Snow
Appearing to have honed their sound down, Italian symphonic metallers Skylark follows up with their patented Italian symphonic metal sound from their previous efforts without much difference here. The fifth full-length album from the group, which sees new drummer Carlos Cantatore join the group, has them dropping their Divine Gates concept for a new story that was originally released November 5, 2001 from Underground Symphony before various reissues by the label.
As this implies, the keyboards are up-front and become the focal point of the whole album with it placed so high in the mix this leads to light, dreary atmospheres over the entire album. Bristling with Neoclassical melodies, dexterous symphonic tones that weave throughout the melodies and sparkling bursts of flowery arrangements, the majority of the keyboard work is all sorts of fun. The Neoclassical melodies at play here with the bombastic nature of the symphonic patterns within the keyboards allows for a rather grand and majestic vibe that plays a big role interjecting melodies along the up-tempo patterns and the blinding double-kick drumming, all of which are part of the bands’ sound. While the album itself is noticeably straightforward, the fact that it is so straightforward and unyielding exposes several flaws. Their set-up of blinding speed and Neoclassical patterns shows the band relying on the same tricks, for the most part played around the same speeds which tend to get pretty familiar-sounding bleeding into each other managing to utilize the same rhythmic patterns over and over again. Nearly all the drum patterns sound the same, the riffing falls into eerily similar patterns and the keyboards strike up the same series of familiar patterns with the constant appearance of the same rhythms and melodies appearing throughout the album as a whole. Beyond this big issue, there’s another rather big one with the incredibly shoddy mix, really doing none of the instruments any favors. The drums are lifeless and hollow complete with irritating typewriter-clicking double-bass runs, the guitars tend to disappear from whole sections in the songs and are so light and airy they get drowned out. These factors are enough to keep this one down but still not to the point of being on the lower end.
Although there’s a lot to really like here about this one, it’s flaws just do hold this one back to the point of madness with the one lone problem featured here which makes this one solely appealing to the most devout and enthusiastic Italian power metal aficionados and fans of flowery power metal while all others should heed extreme caution.
Artist: Behind the Shadows
Release Title: Raising Hell
Year: 2016
Label: Visionaire Records
Genre: Symphonic Power Metal
Tracklisting:
1.Raising Hell
2.Give Me Your Soul
3.Holy Lie
4.Zombie Flesh Eaters
5.The Shadow Of Death
6.Bloody Paradise
The second full-length from Greek power metallers Behind the Shadows is a rather troubling and somewhat problematic release that potentially could’ve been quite fun. The band’s basis for using tight, stylish riffing with a large influx of groove patterns makes for a decent base that comes off nicely here at times, especially alongside the faster tempos and paces from the simple-yet-pounding drum-work featured and the added symphonics on display. That said, there’s a few problems featured here in this one that does manage to hold it down. The main issue here is that the majority of the tracks are merely decent if not wholly uninteresting, tending to feature bland patterns and arrangements without much if any really exciting elements here which is due to the crippling nature of the simplistic style of the tracks. This particular genre is really keen on grandiose and bombastic patterns, and yet this here is stripped down to the point of not really featuring anything normally associated with the genre, making for a few decent moments spread out through the tracks which are more bland than anything else. That ties into the other big problem here, with the album being so short that it really can’t bring in too many other elements to spice this material up with it being so quick that there’s little opportunity it can really utilize to make up for those bland elements. It does have a few parts that work, but by and large this one isn’t all that great.
The tracks here for the most part are real hit-or-miss. Opener ‘Raising Hell’ features a simple, droning series of mid-tempo riffing with plenty of simple drumming alongside the plodding rhythms as the later kick-off into far more energetic riffing still manages to keep the somewhat plodding tempos leading into the solo section and keeping into the final half for a decent enough opener. ‘Give Me Your Soul’ uses a simple series of swirling keyboards running alongside pounding groove rhythms in the riff-work that continues along a jaunty mid-tempo series of rhythms with the simplistic driving rhythms bringing the discordant patterns into the finale for another decent effort. ‘Holy Lie’ immediately kicks into rousing groove riffing with fiery keyboards and dynamic drumming before settling on a decent mid-tempo pace with stuttering drumming and plodding rhythms churning along through the swarming riffing within the solo section and into the final half for easily the highlight of the album. ‘Zombie Flesh Eaters’ features swirling mid-tempo rhythms that quickly turns into a stylish plodding mid-tempo series of grandiose riffing and pounding energetic drumming that continually keeps a steady pace through the hard-hitting series of rhythms leading through the finale for another rather enjoyable effort. ‘The Shadow Of Death’ takes simplistic symphonic keyboards and sparse riff-work to work through a plodding pace with a series of swarming patterns that mix with the fine drumming into a more energetic pace as the energy kicks up into the final half for a decent enough effort. Finally, album-closer ‘Bloody Paradise’ uses light droning symphonics before turning into a feral series of raging riff-work and pounding, energetic drumming keeping the intensity driving along the more intense riff-work leading on through the symphonic-led final half for a somewhat decent lasting impression.
With more sizeable and noticeable flaws here to a few somewhat negligible positives really manages to stick out here for this one not being all that remarkable or truly worthwhile, leaving this one mainly only for those die-hard aficionados of the style or fans of the band’s past catalog for the most part.
Artist: Антиллия (Antilla)
Release Title: Древние силы (Ancient Forces)
Year: 2015
Label: Self-Released/Independant
Genre: Symphonic Power Metal
Tracklisting:
1.Последний звездопад (Last Starfall)
2.Тайна (Mystery)
3.Рассвет (Sunrise)
4.Штурм (The Assault)
5.Смертный бой (Mortal Fight)
6.Свечи (Candles)
7.Древние силы (Ancient Forces)
8.Шаман (The Shaman)
9.Одиночество (Loneliness)
10.На краю света (At World's End)
11.Пленённый бессмертием (Captivated By The Immortality)
12.Антиллия (Antillia)
13.Вселенная (Universe)
14.Эпилог (Epilogue)
The debut full-length from Russian symphonic power metallers Антиллия (Antilla) offers a nice, well-rounded display of styles that certainly makes them seem poised to become the leader of the movement. From the outset this release tends to favor far more modern styles of the genre where the expressive keyboards adopt more of a cinematic style that lends itself to feel at home scoring an epic fantasy battle sequence with the overall style on display. It’s bombastic, majestic and grandiose sweeping arrangements give this a rather heavy tone here where it tends to recreate the dramatic energy and emotional resonance alongside the generally explosive power metal riff-work where this one manages to utilize all the prototypical patterns where it tends to either spend the majority of the time either featuring those impeccable speed-metal riffing styles that allow this to fly along at dynamic, up-tempo speeds or the crushing mid-tempo chugging variant that leaves this rather dynamic style quite nicely alongside the rest of the riff-work on display. Even getting the kind of dueling vocal patterns featured here where there’s plenty of grandiose fun to come from the operatic leads from both the male and female vocalists this leaves the album with plenty to like overall. Though this is the case, it does seem to stumble from minor flaws in the sense of basically feeling bloated with too many songs here that it can feel like a struggle to get to the finishing line at times. Getting there based on the fact that there’s several tracks on the later half that goes for the same overall mid-paced plodding without changing up the tempo or playing order leaves with a rather familiar air as it makes it’s way throughout here where it really does get to the point of feeling overdone without much reason to. The ambition on a debut does get them a free pass here, but the quantity could’ve been scaled back slightly to great effect here.
The first half here gives a solid impression of what to expect here. Opener ‘Последний звездопад (Last Starfall)’ takes a grandiose intro turning into a series of sweeping keyboards and charging riff-work blazing with dynamic drumming and operatic vocal choirs over the pummeling, chugging chords taking the majestic, grandiose rhythms thumping along into the solo section sweeping along to raging final half for an utterly spectacular opening impression. ‘Тайна (Mystery)’ uses a moody acoustic intro and melancholy riffing leaving a haunting feel that settles nicely into a chugging mid-tempo feel with majestic keyboards over the rumbling rhythms keeping the steady pace in check through the series of romantic leads carrying along into the solo section and into the finale for another fine effort. Brief interlude ‘Рассвет (Sunrise)’ offers cinematic clanging drumming that sets the stage for ‘Штурм (The Assault)’ that takes rousing drumming and grandiose thrashing rhythms full of bombastic driving keyboards keeping the energetic riff-work tightly wound to the raging drumming and pounding rhythms chugging along to the up-tempo paces into the solo section and leading through the light acoustic-driven final half for another solid effort. ‘Смертный бой (Mortal Fight)’ takes a steady series of bombastic rhythms and grandiose keyboards that swell into a stylish swirling pace with the chugging riffing staying along with the thumping drumming and majestic, operatic keyboards charging along into the mid-paced finale for a strong, powerful effort. ‘Свечи (Candles)’ features a steady chugging intro with plenty of swirling keyboards over the plodding mid-tempo operatic rhythms sweeping through the majestic keyboards and flowing alongside the pounding drumming with the grandiose keyboards keeping the plodding majestic paces in check through the final half for an enjoyable enough effort. Another brief interlude
‘Древние силы (Ancient Forces)’ simply features bombastic choirs and pounding cinematic drumming throughout.
The second half does come up a little short but still has some quality within it. ‘Шаман (The Shaman)’ utilizes scorching riffing and bombastic drumming driving along to a furious up-tempo pace with the driving rhythms holding the scorching cinematic melodies through the charging atmosphere with the utterly blistering drumming carrying the urgent rhythms along into the blazing solo section and keeping the raging leads through the finale for another spectacular highlight offering. The ballad ‘Одиночество (Loneliness)’ features impassioned, romantic piano lilting over light, melodic riffing as the romantic vocal trade-offs hold the simple, breezy patterns into the lighter piano-driven pattern through the final half for a decent enough if utterly skippable track. ‘На краю света (At World's End)’ brings it back to the blistering drumming and grandiose keyboards raging through the churning mid-tempo rhythms against the operatic vocals and the barreling drumming making for the symphonic battles against the thumping chug-laced riffing into the sol section and continuing into the blistering finale for another strong highlight. ‘Пленённый бессмертием (Captivated By The Immortality)’ features strong dexterous keyboards swirling along through the cinematic rhythms as the keyboards drop into a strong chugging riff-work with pounding drumming carrying through the majestic patterns of the steady final half for an enjoyable effort. ‘Антиллия (Antillia)’ uses rolling drumming and bombastic keyboards into a stellar mid-tempo pace full of thumping rhythms with the plodding riff-work carrying through the bombastic keyboards with plenty of strong majestic keyboards holding through the solo section and into the finale for an enjoyable enough effort. ‘Вселенная (Universe)’ uses the extended sampled intro to lead into plodding, rhythmic drumming and steady, mid-tempo chugging riffing that holds the bombastic symphonic vocals soaring operatically over the steady build back into dramatic mid-tempo rhythms and pounding drumming that carries on through the final half for a stylish effort overall. Finally, album-closer ‘Эпилог (Epilogue)’ takes the bombastic and swirling cinematic rhythms along throughout for an enjoyable finishing touch to make for a solid lasting impression.
Offering up enough enjoyable elements to really make an impression despite a few missteps here and there, overall it ends leaving this one as a rather enjoyable and somewhat notable act to follow for fans of this bombastic, cinematic style of power metal or just undiscerning power metal fans in general.
