Review Summary: An epic, sombre, and traditional triumph of classic Heavy Metal in the modern era.
A call back to the golden age of US Power Metal in the late 80’s, and had this come out at that time, I have no doubt it would have been canonized among the greats along with bands like Jag Panzer, Manilla Road and Riot. The band opts for a straightforward core band sound, forgoing any keys or other production tricks. Due to the fact that each player is preforming top notch material, they pull this off well.
The first aspect that jumps out are the powerful female vocals, singing in an epic style. I really like these vocals because they don’t “over-sing” like some other epic bands (Epica for example), instead focusing on a more straightforward delivery that perfectly compliments the instruments rather than competing with them. The guitarwork is awesome here, totally packed riffs that sound straight from the 80’s, yet still fresh and inventive. Both rhythm and lead guitars are equally interesting, with rhythm riffs offering a great variety of USPM, classic Heavy Metal, Speed and Thrash riffage, whereas the leads and solos tend to be more melodic, complimenting the rhythm work nicely.
The rhythm section was actually the most pleasant surprise for me. The drums are the biggest gap between this album and classic 80’s USPM, because the drumming here is super fresh, varied, and incorporates lots of techniques that were not common in non-extreme Metal in the 80’s (there are even a few sections with blast beats!). The bass is similarly refreshing, being wonderfully audible and doing way more than providing a steady rhythm; multiple sections feature bass preform more of a “lead” style instrumentation with delicious melodic groove.
The only misstep on this album is the song “The Hero’s Spirit” which opts for a doomier approach. A vast portion of the song is dedicated to overlapping guitar leads that sound… off-key, or are just conflicting with each other. The intent was probably to build dissonant atmosphere to accentuate the gloomier nature of the song, but it isn’t executed well. The beginning and ending of the song do it better, and I feel the band could definitely succeed at the doomier approach with a bit more restraint and tact. A lot of the album has a slightly sombre feel, which I greatly enjoy, they just need to work on how they create atmosphere.
The lyrics on this album are generic USPM fare, except for the last song, “In Spring.” Wow, what a closer. Not only does it have the most interesting and varied instrumentation on the album, but it also features lyrics that are wonderfully poetic and genuinely moving. It was already tied with the aggressive thrasher “Tyrant’s March” for my favorite song, but the lyrics pushed it over the edge into masterpiece territory. A phenomenal display of everything this band can do right.
Overall a wonderful debut keeping classic Metal very much alive in 2025. I look forward to seeing what they do next!
