The fifth studio album from the German power metallers sees the band return from their longest gap between releases yet. I remember enjoying their last album back in the day and, now that they have seemingly added Morgana full time, I have to say I’m pretty hyped for this album. I completely get the scrutiny they are under by some in the wider genre, but I am certainly a fan of the band, and am excited to hear what they have, given that I haven’t checked out any of the singles yet either!
The album starts as it means to go on with the epic, Viking-style building intro into the title track. The big, heavy riff is complimented perfectly by the solid drumming and then the chanted, ‘woh’ vocals, something that will surely whip a live crowd into a frenzy right from the offset. The powerful vocals come in and I love the guitars dropping out between the lines in the verse, giving everything time to breathe and build back up perfectly. Speaking of building, it all leads to a HUGE, arena filling chorus that is surely going to be stuck in my head for the rest of the day! The high vocals come in for the second verse, but are just as powerful as the lower ones, a damn impressive feat that both Tribune and Morgana are both so good! The bridge riff is stomping and fantastically heavy, and leads to another great intro reprieve! Honestly, this is a fantastic opener and a strong contender for one of my favourite tracks from the band already!
The following song features a guest I’m shockingly not familiar with, Orden Ogan. However, after listening to the track, I’m gonna have to check out some of their own stuff, because I loved this! Don’t get me wrong, a lot of that can probably be chalked up to the vaguely-cheesy power metal masterclass of writing Warkings put on again, but Orden certainly show up here too. From the epic riffing to the incredible, epic vocal delivery and melody overall, it’s European power metal at its very best! It gives off Hammerfall vibes in the best possible way, and I’m here for it! And it’s another massive earworm of a chorus, too. And we also get a fantastic, technical little guitar solo tucked away in the middle, a nice addition to the formula of the previous track. So far the band are two for two on big highlight tracks on this thing!
‘Kingdom Come’ has a bit more of a plodding pace to it, opening pretty quickly into the huge, epic chorus that is made to be played in front of huge festival crowds. I like that it drops down for the verse too, adding some great dynamics to the track and on e again building up perfectly. It almost feels like a heavier ballad-track, and I love it! And the band clearly know the way to my heart, because after a heavy bridge we get a fantastic key changed chorus, guitar solos in the back and the lot. It’s yet another utterly brilliant song, and I’m honestly blown away by this album so far!
After another brief, ominous spoken-word interlude, the incantation leads perfectly into the fast, heavy ‘Circle of Witches’. Honestly it almost feels like more of a thrash track than anything else, and the occasional screams through it were a fantastic touch! And yet it still builds to a massive, catchy-as-anything chorus that firmly roots it to the power metal genre. And that solo, DAMN, *chefs kiss*, that was awesome and fit the tone of the track perfectly! To I’m sure no one’s shock at this point, another excellent song!
Next up is another single, ‘Kings of Ragnarök’. From the riffing to the choir vocals at the start, it begins in the most power metal style possible, and keeps that feeling for the full four minute runtime! It’s of course another fantastic song, but does very much follow the same formula as its predecessors so far. The screams again were a nice touch, and it’s catchy enough that it will surely be another firm live favourite! It almost gives off Dragonforce vibes, being a bit more uplifting than the previous songs, fitting the lyrics pretty perfectly.
After another similar interlude to the previous one, we get the incredibly catchy vocal opening of ‘Troops of Immortality’. It’s an incredible chorus and makes for another memorable song, for sure. However, I was starting to get a little tired of the same formula and style over and over, by this time in. The interludes were helping, as was changing up the song structure slightly. But, even when the songs are absolutely incredible, like they are here, it’s hard for my tiny attention span to not wander after a few of the same. Still, it’s another absolutely fantastic Warkings song, and a brilliant power metal and just song in general!
As if to immediately make me eat my words, ‘Nightfall’ slows things down and drops things down into more of a ballad, at least to begin with. The clean riff is awesome, and the first verse feels more like something Queensryche-esque than power metal. However, it does still build into the typically awesome, epic Warkings sound by the admittedly amazing chorus. And heck, the fact that they manage to squeeze in the most brutal scream on the album on the slowest track is no mean feat! By the final chorus it’s another massive power metal song, but damn did it get there in a fun and interesting way. Another massive highlight!
Next up is a song featuring our friends in Dominum. It does have a slight air of Dominum in the riffing and general writing too, which was a very nice touch! Heck, the fact that they even use ‘forelorn’ so much almost makes this feel like a continuation of the bands latest albums story, in a way! The song is awesome and the chorus is fantastic, but having Dr Dead on the track just makes it even better. He’s one of the most underrated vocalists around today, and fits in perfectly to this track! Yeah, this is another excellent power metal song on an album packed full of them, and one I’d certainly recommend checking out if you haven’t already!
The final three songs are fairly as expected, except for the epic power ballad, ‘Here Comes the Rain’, tucked away in the middle of them. ‘Varangoi’ is the most standard Warkings you could get, while the closing track features the mighty Subway to Sally in a massive way, having much more of a folk metal leaning. Both tracks are great, with the closer in particular being an excellent blend of the two bands styles. However, that ballad, goddamn, it gave me goosebumps. It was beautiful, powerful and so masterfully written and performed. It was a style that I hoped we’d get on this album and it didn’t disappoint at all. Yet another massive highlight of the album, and one of the best metal ballads I’ve heard in a while.
Overall: I’m a fan of the band, but this was better than I was ever expecting! It was epic from start to finish, and is a perfect example of how great power metal can be in 2025. There isn’t a bad song on this and it’s arranged pretty perfectly with all the interludes (even if I’d have maybe moved ‘Nightfall’ up a touch). If you are at all a fan of the band, genre or just metal in general, I’d certainly recommend checking out this album, I’m sure you’ll love it as much as I do! It builds on everything they did well on Morgana and they really proved that they are here to stay near the top of the scene!
The Score: 8.5/10