2008-03-16
When I first saw the picture of this band on the album's booklet, I was sure this wasn't going to be any good. These guys look young, too young. I have nothing against talented young metal musicians doing their thing, only most of the time – their thing sucks. Not enough experience and far too lofty aspirations make for bad metal albums.
Well, I'm happy to say these guys proved me wrong. The band, based around the talents of the brothers Shaun and Jason Vanek, delivers a solid power metal album with a strong Euro feel, impressive playing displays and some fine song-writing in what is a mature and well-made album.
Shaun Vanuk I know from his excellent guitar work with metal veterans
Wretch, whose album I reviewed
here about a year ago, he's a very good player with a strong ear for melody; his technically proficient leads are put to good use here.
His brother Jason is the band's second guitarist and vocalist, and he also performs admirably, with the rest of the young band members being no slouches either, solid rhythm section and a keyboardist that lends the right background cover, blending in with the band's music instead of simply overtaking it – as some keyboardists have the annoying habit of doing.
The first track, "Fires Wrath", is a rather high-tempo melodic power metal number, and a pretty good one too, nice riffs – fine drum work, it's all right, but I wasn't blown away by it. Then came with the second track, the excellent "Rise Of Daemon" plays like a much more cohesive and well-written song, with strong melodies, almost black-metal keyboard-guitar interplay, and a great vocal performance from Jason Vanek.
The band doesn't slow down from there onwards, almost every song is well written, melodic and quite catchy with some distinct flavoring.
"Shadow Of Revolution" is an aggressive number, almost thrash-like, with a very strong riff going for it, while "Time Out Of Mind" is a proggier cut, in which the band really displays it's technical prowess.
This is one of the better latter-day American power metal bands I've heard recently, young these guys may be, but it seems their talents are enough to drive this towards the right path. Anyone into good melodic metal should give this a listen.
Alon Miasnikov
