Reviews
2006-07-29
Yep, it’s another Swedish power metal band, in the vein of
Dream Evil and
Hammerfall, with all the proper melodic riffs, high pitched vocals and fine production values, there's not much in the way of originality here, but I have to say, it’s still a very well made album, energetic and well played, this will be taken up easily by Hammerfall fans, but it's still not overly unique for anyone else to explore.
The band's strongest cuts are the ones in which they pour on the heaviness and use some needed double bass and fast riffs, the opening track – “Shadowgate” is one strong number, and “Back From The Dark” is another, the ones that the band tends to elicit some boredom is in the slower track, such as the title track, which is more in the vain of trad metal and losses some of the energy of the more power oriented stuff.
A few cookie points for the musicianship on the album, the guitar playing is great with some good lead work thrown in, good rhythm section with a few NWOHM sounding bass lines here and there. The vocals are also quite strong, with a good range from vocalist Andres Haggkvist.
Still, they need to throw in something extra, a different concept, maybe darker tone, this is a good melodic metal album, but it can be much better with some effort.
Alon Miasnikov
