Argh, Italian mighty scene strikes again! Elvenking are back with their new full length opus first in four years and it is their eleventh full length opus until now. This band has been in the scene for more than 25 years now delivering their vision of melodic true metal mixed with lots of folk metal influences in the song structures, multi vocal lines, violins and mystical atmosphere holding the listener chained listening to their magical music! The album opener ‘Rapture’ starts with acoustic intro delivering us to galloping metal and mixture of harsh and melodic vocal lines, courtesy of singers Aydan and Damna. Folk metal influences are also here with acoustic like medieval parts in the middle of the song. Elvenking always had sense how to create drama and keep the listeners attention with their music. At times Elvenking reminded me of early Rhapsody, but more metal and more harsh and not neoclassical like forementioned band. ‘The Hanging Tree’ almost is a mixture of thrash metal and some prog elements with folk metal melodies in there. Other songs that I must also mention as being standouts for me on this opus are ‘To The North’, ‘Herdchant’ and ‘Red Mist’. Good album by great band.
Battle Born are hailing from UK and this is their first full length opus. This one contains eleven songs of wonderful true power metal with all the warrior ethics and something that I admired in this kind of metal since its inception. This is at times aggressive and fast speed metal combined with epic guitar melodies, even better vocal lines and backing vocal harmonies. Vocals are very important in this kind of metal, so I must say that singer Jack Reynolds delivers fine job with his voice not being too high but fits perfectly to the songs. I love the use of backing vocal quires in ‘Blood and Fire’, also songs that I must mention are ‘Down Your Drinks and Raise Your Swords’ and ‘Ride North for Winterhold’. As you can see the story around lyrics are swords and sorcery plus fantasy heroism just made to pump your fist in the air and sing along at gigs. Battle Born also use keyboards but they also belong to the richness of sounds this mighty band delivers. A really, really strong debut opus.
Dugo nismo imali neki japanski bend na stranicama ovog zinea. Galneryus su iz Osake/Tokya i na sceni su od 2001.i ovo ime je šesnaesti dugosvirajući album koji sadrži osam pjesama od kojih je jedna svojevrstan intro. Muzika koju Galneryus sviraju je power/true metal s daškom fantasya i ratničkog etosa, ali istovremeno s puno neoklasičnih utjecaja, kao i progresivnog metala i sve to upakirano u album zvuči sasvim odlično, kao miks starog Rhapsodya i Blind Guardiana, barem je mene podsjetilo na te bendove. Spoj odličnih gitarskih melodija i žešćih pasaža sa odličnim vokalom i harmonijama na backing vokalima, kao i super napisanih pjesama daju ovom bendu neku čar, kakvu već dugo nisam čuo. Pjesme su duže, ali ni sekundu nisu dosadne ili se ne ponavljaju. Meni su osobni favoriti pjesme ‘Time Will Tell’, ‘With Pride’ i ‘Bravehearts’. Odličan album.
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 