2006-12-01
I don’t really know how to describe Sacred Dawn's music, I know its metal, but its somewhere in between prog and more traditional power metal, it reminded me a lot of
Queensrÿche at times, probably because of the vocals, but the music also reminded me of
Nevermore. Whatever you want to call them, one thing is certain, the album works, and it works well.
The band is mainly centered around the talents of vocalist/lead guitarist/bassist Lothar Keller, and its his voice that lends most of the quality to this release, a mid-range melodic voice that can stand with the best of them, his upper range reminded me a lot of Geoff Tate's, the fact he can play his guitar as well is a testament to his ability.
The title track starts off the proceedings, clear cut progy riffs with a tinge of aggression, not overly complicated but rather melodic and catchy, the drums also accentuate the aggressive side, the tracks works quite well. One of the best cuts is the third one, "I'm The One", a catchy and strong chorus, fine riffing, this has all the trademarks that make this band good.
"Hatred" adds more depth, clean guitar verses with the usual strong guitar performance by Keller, and an added…well, it sounds like a Sitar, nice addition, the song continues into a heavy, Middle Eastern sounding riff. "White Road, Black Sun" is less conventional, starts off with an immediately heavy riff, deep melodic vocals and an aggressive break, the prog side is more evident, plentiful rhythm changes and some interesting riffs, still, it refrains from masturbatory technical passages, its still hard edged metal, played well.
I also liked some of the catchier tracks, such as "Walls Of Jericho", simple, hard rocking riffs with Keller's deep vocals, this is classic American melodic metal, they don’t make too much of that anymore.
Quite a pleasant surprise, this band, evidently veterans in their craft, have created a very good album indeed, strong melodic metal with enough sophistication and melody to satisfy both prog and traditional metal fans, I'll definitely keep an eye on them in the future.
Alon Miasnikov
