By John Bedard
By this point, it should be pretty common knowledge that I love power metal. Epic tales, big sweeping movements, powerful vocals, and usually a very optimistic and cheesy tone. It is hard to not get lost in the music and nearly impossible to be in a bad mood while listening. I always say power metal is my feel-good music. I also think it is a genre that takes an extreme amount of talent to get right. Needless to say, I was extremely excited to see Chaos Lord in my email. The question is does it live up to the grand ideas I have of the genre? Or will it fall short?
Musically, most of what you expect is here. Fast driving drums, consistent rhythm, and big leads. I do feel like this album is a bit slower than what I would expect from power metal and spends more time down to earth rather than letting the guitar sore into the higher notes as often as others in the genre. Don’t get me wrong it’s there just not as much as I would have expected from the genre. Especially when the press email describes the band as “epic power metal” I was expecting these elements to be amplified not subdued.
Vocally, is where I get a little lost here. I think they have the capability to push into the higher registers but rarely do. Once again things stay a lot more down to earth than I would have expected. This is then compounded by the tracks being overly repetitive. I know that is very common in the genre and is often even welcomed as it is easy to learn the lyrics and fail at singing along but here I feel it is too much. I often found myself bored with the track before it was over. This is a shame because the lyrics have the epic stories that I love from the genre, but I just found the delivery a little bland. The further into the album I got the more these elements I was looking for began to show but still not to the level I would expect for epic power metal.
All in all, I did like the album, but it is not standing out as one of the greats. I don’t feel like I would have been missing out all that much had I not been sent this one but having heard it I do think it will be a decent addition to fill out a power metal playlist. It is worth giving a shot, but I don’t think it is going to be one that you rave about. Just one you put on in the background while doing other things.
- ‘Chaos Lord’ is released on Friday (26 March). You can get your copy HERE.
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