The French heavy/power metal rising stars return with their third studio album this coming Friday. I’m familiar with a couple of tracks off their previous albums, and that coupled with the singles I’ve heard from this so far I have to say I’m pretty excited. So, without further ado, let’s dive right into this world of heaviness and mysticism!
The album starts off in perfect fashion with the high-energy ‘The Magic Stone’. The riff is traditional heavy metal awesomeness, while there is also just a touch of sleaziness to the sound too, which surprised me but definitely isn’t an issue! The soaring, Rob Halford-style vocals firmly ground the track in an epic, NWOBHM/power metal blend, though. The chorus is huge and massively catchy, while the instrumentation throughout is amazing. And that guitar solo, especially the harmonies in the middle… DAMN. It’s an amazing track, a damn good opener and one that easily makes it onto our playlist!
The epicness continues into the album’s epic title track and recent single. The opening riff is massive with the choir in the back, and only gets even bigger when the rest of the band join in! The steady verse builds up perfectly through the pre into another huge, arena-filling chorus. We also get another technical masterclass of a guitar solo, them being a big highlight of the album in general. It’s an amazing classic power metal track, and the second incredible track on the album in a row!
Some groove metal opens ‘Real or Fantasy’, and I love it. It has more of a Firewind style over the more Hammerfall-esque like last track, and I can’t help but love it! The riffing is somehow taken up yet another notch in this track, as is the soloing; it’s a guitarists dream! Meanwhile the vocals are just as solid as ever; powerful and effortlessly soaring. The band somehow go three for three on incredible tracks so far, and this is another easy highlight and playlisted track!
‘Guardian Angels’ picks the pace back up into thrash-infused power metal, again drawing comparisons to Hammerfall. The same could be said for ‘Letter to Myself’ and the Judas Priest-like ‘Souls of Travelers’, though I do love the heavy synth-focus on the former! All are amazing, traditional power metal/NWOBHM tracks that I love, but all are fairly similar and I don’t want to keep repeating the same gushing over and over again. It doesn’t make for a fun read, trust me!
Between the aforementioned tracks, the album pauses to slow down and breathe a little. ‘Judgement Day’ is another NMWBHM-inspired slower intro and, while it does get heavier, it does still stay at a rather steady pace and has plenty of epic feelings in the chorus. The backing vocals in it are incredible, making it so damn catchy. Meanwhile ‘A Long Way to Valhalla’ is a beautiful, folky power metal ballad, and fits the theme of the album perfectly. It’s also in the best spot on the release, breaking up the heavier stuff and keeping things even more interesting. The band shockingly do this style just as well as the metal stuff, and it’s another huge highlight of the album! It has an epic feel throughout and the distortion, when it comes in, is hugely earned.
The final two tracks are more awesome heaviness again. The band do their brand of power metal perfectly at this point, and it’s hard to fault either of the closing tracks! The final one, ‘When Stars Are Alligned’ in particular is excellent, and the perfect way to close out the album! Again, it’s so hard to write interesting while still saying over and over how good the instrumentation and vocals are, so just trust me, they’re excellent.
Overall: This was amazing! Three albums in the band are going just as hard as ever, and may have delivered their best release to date. Everything about the album was amazing, from the vocals to the instrumentation to the songwriting. If you are in any way a fan of either of the genre’s I’ve brought up in this, check them out, you won’t be disappointed! The band have a bright future ahead of them if they keep putting out stellar releases like this!
The Score: 8/10