As a big fan of
Falconer's first selftitled album, which was my album of the year 2001, the departure of original singer
Mathias Blad was a huge disappointment to me. Somehow, it was his special voice and excellent feeling for melodies with a background as musical singer, that added the extra dimension and freshness, and completed the folk-like vision that guitarist and composer
Stefan Weinerhall, continued after his days in
Mithotyn.
But after all, the fundamental sound in
Falconer is created by Stefan Weinerhall's solid and powerful riffs, and as the sole composer of music as well as lyrics, he's the one who gave birth to the
Falconer style, I've come to love!
However I did worry for the future of the band after their appearance at Sweden Rock Festival 2003, where newly recruited singer
Kristoffer Göbel, left me with a disappointed feeling after delivering the lyrics incorrectly, and just sounded like the run-of-the-mill Power Metal screamer, without the same feeling and flair for melodies. Well, well, being drunk at a festival, it is possible to misjudge someone's character, because he actually takes the heritage of Blad upon him with great strength and after listening to The Sceptre Of Deception repeatedly he seems a good successor.
Kristoffer Göbel has a tone of voice very similar to that of his predecessor, and sometimes I could have been fooled to believe it actually was Mathias Blad singing, mostly in the quiet parts. On the other hand he's not a copycat, he is a bit more highpitched than Mathias Blad, and I think he'll satisfy both those who cry over the departure of the original singer, and those who missed a more Metal oriented singer!
Though it's the catchy, earhanging choruses one take notion of at the first spin of the record, they are not what the whole album relies on, or what the songs stands or falls with, the music is more faceted that that. A big force in giving the music diversity is the drumming, which is many unpredictable shifts away from the usual double bass drumming during the whole album, which is so common in today's Power Metal.
The central elements in
The Coronation are a very nice, folklike melody, with a somewhat dark feeling to it, the typical slow and heavy Weinerhall riffs, some very varied drumming and a catchy but not overused chorus. Well done, and with a darker, more medieval atmosphere than general Power metal.
Under The Sword is not one of the strongest songs on the album, it's slow melody seems a little too predictable and the song doesn't really evolve to something overly interesting. Songs like this make The Sceptre of Deception a decent album, instead of a fantastic one. Not enough captivity or variation, it is a middle-of-the-road tune, with a too conventional structure.
Night Of Infamy is a very catchy tune, and has an excellent way of blending heavy riffs, a beautiful melody and some diverse drumming. Though the chorus is very central, there's a lot of other things going on, and the chorus binds all elements together, instead of being the core component.
Hooves Over Northland has something special! Actually it has a pretty simple profile, with short rhythmic verses and a chorus, but it works here. The splendid, earhanging chorus is lifted to a higher level with the help of female and multi layered vocals.
Slow ultra heavy riffs combined with beautiful vocals and folk influences, make for a killer song!
In
The Sceptre Of Deception the vocals are extremely wide-ranging, Kristoffer Göbel really shows his worth on this great titletrack, which relies a good deal on the chorus, and has a high level of catchyness.
Again a very good way of building up a song and fine variation between the different parts, from heavy guitarwork to folkmelodies and back again. A great and pretty varied titletrack!
Hear Me Pray is a ballad type song, and not that bad, but then again doesn't really add a lot to the general impression of the album. It's too uninteresting, and though it doesn't ruin anything, a song of higher quality would have improved the album! Acoustic guitars, a little keys, a slow melody and so forth. We've heard it all before. I love good ballads, but a regular, standard ballad quickly seems uninspired and therefore gets quite boring, and it seems a little irrelevant here. I wouldn't mind if the album had ended after the titletrack.
Child Of Innocence is just a short folkish melody with beautiful vocals, as outro to the album.
Being not the incredible album, the selftitled debut was to me, The Sceptre Of Deception is still a very solid album, which should appeal to all lovers of melodic Metal with some medieval influences and a good dose of heavy riffs!
Written by
Nina Monday, April 12, 2004
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