I first discovered this band when they were called Dragonheart and I listened to
Valley of the damned (the song) from mp3.com. It was part of their first demo and the grabbed hold of me at once. The brilliant guitar playing combined with some very fast drumming was very impressive. I was looking forward to this release with much interest to see how the band would develop.
After a short intro
Valley of the damned opens the album full force. This is still a fantastic song, very melodic and varied with a great chorus. Fast parts, slow parts, cool solos with shredding all over the place, this song has it all. The guitar solos amaze me every time I hear them. I didn't notice many changes from the Demo version in the song except the production which is more polished and less raw.
Black fire is another speed metal attack on the senses. Parts of this one reminds me somewhat of Sonata Arctica. A very fast song with a nice chorus and lots of changes to keep things interesting. A excellent and melodic song.
Black winter night continues in the same vein, starting out with a great melody and from then moving into a kind of Hellowen'ish happy riff. A very bombastic and symphonic song with loads of keyboards, a little over the top at times.
After this song I feel the album loosing some momentum and I started missing some more originality in the songs.
Starfire is the obligatory power ballad. It's a nice little song with a good melody that keeps it from falling completely to the ground. I still feel that there are too many instruments in there fightning for attention along with the singer though.
Some parts of
Disciples of Babylon are repeated a little too much, but the song has a very nice instrumental middle part which adds to the interest.
Revelations reminds me too much of
Valley of the damned in structure and melody. The song still has some really great parts, especially the solo and the part right before, but overall it doesn't come close to the title song.
Evening Star is a good power metal song with a great bridge, but the simple and Hammerfall'esque chorus let's it down a bit.
Heart of a dragon is the closing happy-vibe hymn. It has a bombastic sing-along chorus, which reminds me strongly of
Freedom Call (German band). The song features another brilliant melodic guitar solo.
The production is almost like a wall of sound that hits you right in the face. Still, the production is well done in the sense that it's possible to discern every instrument. Overall I would have liked the production to be rawer and less polished. Sometimes I would have liked the rythm guitar to be more in front. At times the rythm guitar is almost drowned by the other instruments.
The guitar playing of Herman Li and Sam Totman is pretty amazing and the songs contain loads of cool solos. A special mention also goes to the bass and drum playing which is great and consistent throughout the album. Especially the drum playing is really furious at times. Great job on all instruments. Only minor downpoint is the keyboard which is a little too out of control at times.
The singer, ZP Theart does a great job too, but at times (only at some points) his voice seems a little thin. A couple of times I almost feel like the powerdrumming is about to split the voice into a thousand pieces. A little more raw power or deepness in the voice would have been great.
Some of the songs feel a bit thrown together and unfortunately none of them can quite reach the masterful level of
Valley of the damned in composition or complexity. I'm sure that this band has a great future ahead of them, if they try to develop their style. Everything seems to be in place. A very strong debut with many interesting elements but I hope that they will bring a little more originality with their next release.
Everyone who likes Melodic Power Metal on speed should check this band out. If you like bands like Dragonland, Stratovarius, Sonata Arctica,
Freedom Call etc. then this one is for you.
Written by
Steen Wednesday, January 1, 2003
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