Ezra Brooks – Target Promo 2016 / 82%

Bourbon Whiskey infused with Arcane heavy metal

Originality in heavy metal is often hard to reach or achieve without losing the essential traits of the classic genre. To distinguish themselves from the masses, the artists must deliver a distinctive sound within the confines of the style, bands like Borrowed Time, Demon Bitch or even Darkthrone with The Underground Resistance managed to reinvigorate the genre. Ezra Brooks, with their debut release, successfully wrote fresh and exciting heavy metal made for connoisseurs.

The arcane heavy metal path is one I've been following for a while now. It's often mixed with doom and sword or sorcery (see Atlantean Kodex or The Gates of Slumber) or it's simply slower than your usual trad heavy metal. The main characteristic of this abstract sub genre would be the mix of high octane riffs and an occult and elegant atmosphere. The sole album of the aforementioned Borrowed Time or Howie Bentley’s Cauldron Born and Briton Rites are good examples of arcane trad metal. In Solitude’s Sister wouldn’t be a bad choice either. Emotional weight through uncompromising heavy metal riffing, basically. I believe that's what Ezra Brooks plays too.

Following the Canadian path created by Tales of Medusa (the last track is a cover of this mysterious band), Shawn Vincent wrote subtle but engaging metal with hooks and depth. Only joined by Jan Loncik, his companion in Hrom (power/speed/heavy), who handled the guitar solos, this is a one-man band project but with an interesting narrative.

I recently reviewed Lascaille Shroud's latest album and while we're in completely different territories musically, the science fiction story-line involving the character Ezra Brooks has the similar feel. This pulpy sci fi/fantasy setting works really well with the style, it’s fun without being saccharine and smart without being pretentious. There’s a cerebral edge to Ezra Brooks’ music but it’s never turning into a “progressive” mess.

The production is great and everything sounds good, I dig the guitar tone a lot. Nevertheless, there's still a definite will to make this sound timeless or unpolished and this what makes me really dig the approach. Vincent's voice is quite buried underneath the mix, he's not the most talented vocalist but the material is written and played with this in mind. The most important aspect of music is that you must know your strengths and weaknesses. His strength is writing tight epic riffs without unnecessary garnishes.

The material’s main inspiration is perhaps the ballsy sound of USPM but there’s nods to other scenes such as the early 80s German power scene. Considering Vincent is a bassist in his other two bands, the instrument certainly has a place of choice here but it’s not overbearing or anything. The drums could had been heavier and faster though but overall, it doesn’t feel like it’s only one dude at all. The longest track “Weilding the Mirrored Gauntlet (Escape The Labyrinth)” also has some synths elements adding a certain sci fi flair to this epic number without any cheese whatsoever.

2016 is a year with great heavy metal on the lo-fi side of the spectrum (check out Scalare, Barrow Wight or Angel Sword) and Ezra Brooks (the name of a Bourbon Whiskey brand!) definitely brings something interesting to the table. I’m pretty excited to hear the future releases.

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Dark Forest – Beyond the Veil (2016) / 85%

Epic English artful metal

The English lads are back with their fourth album and it’s their most ambitious work since their formation. Beyond the Veil is a truly epic album clocking over seventy minutes and really showcase everything the band can do. I’ll admit the length was overwhelming at first and I still think it’s too long for the genre they play but there’s nothing disposable to be found on the record. They suffer from the same syndrome one of their main inspirations has been suffering for a while, I’m of course talking about the overlong albums of Iron Maiden.

Their mix of classic NWOBHM with the fun folky melodic side of Skyclad is enjoyable but since their formula is so uplifting, it’s a bit too much at times. They do unleash the necessary slower and calm moments such as the two interludes but those are a bit too short to really catch your breath between the busy, often long numbers (six songs over six minutes). Songs like “Earthbound” bring a melancholic mid-paced feel but still brings out the riffs. For such a long album, there’s not a lot of surprises but the title track has those added female vocals adding an ethereal influence to one of the catchiest tracks of Beyond the Veil. This same song also has a pure folk break without turning it into a cheese fest.

I’ve been listening to the album a lot and while it’s an exhausting experience, it’s nevertheless a rewarding. I do feel like skipping some tracks to reach the concluding fourteen minutes epic “The Lore of the Land” which really feel it could be on Dance of Death or The Final Frontier (I love those albums by the way)

Josh Winnard’s second album with the band sees the singer expands on his performance from The Awakening. The dude sounds really good and fits the elegant traditional metal identity of Dark Forest very well. His approach is clean, powerful and he has a lot of range and really fits the powerful vibe the band explores. Sure, he’s not rough or anything and is perhaps one of the most noticeable power metal aspects of the band but I enjoyed his contribution. The choruses and vocal lines are super epic and never boring.

Patrick Jenkins and the band founder Christian Horton both delivers excellent twin guitar harmonies and like their ancestors, their guitar styles encompass heavy, folk, epic power or even speed metal and considering the songs are packed, it’s always combined into a tightly knit package. The leads are well written and they also know how to write clean soothing moments (like on “The Wild Hunt” ).

While it’s too long-winded for nothing, Beyond the Veil is a great album worth your precious time if you like this kind of metal. They’re certainly able to represent England’s past in a wonderful way.

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Originally published on The Metal Observer

Risen Prophecy - Into the Valley of Hinnom (2015) / 81%

The prophecy that will bring balance to metal?

...well, maybe not but it's not still super cool metal!

These Brits sure like their metal American and it's certainly a good thing. Their second full length was a late 2015 surprise for me, I wasn't expecting much as I thought the cover art was a bit silly (done by Jowita Kamińska, co-head of their label Metal on Metal) but this freaking rocks. Composed of four songs ranging from 6 to 11 minutes and 2 short instrumentals acting as an introduction and a conclusion, this album is a strong piece of superbly crafted epic metal with thunderous riffs and quality vocals.

I'd say the biggest influences are Iced Earth's early material mixed with an healthy dose of Manowar, Testament or also some german speed steel. It's high octane metal with blistering blastbeats, technically apt and old school soloing (“To the Wolves” has a cool one) and a varied and talented lead singer who intertwines between deep manly vocals and high pitched Kingdiamondesque ones. Dan Tyrens is a well rounded singer with a lot of range and he's much better at the violent thrashy groove vocals than Russell Allen (please stop, dude). There's also some well placed gang shouts to emphasize certain lines from these biblical and mythological lyrics.

The riffing of Ross Oliver (the sole guitarist in the band) ranges from super heavy and Jon Schaffer only wish he had his skills. The production is mighty and helps the music a lot, the two most epic tracks (“Brood of Vipers” and the title track) keeps a well balanced sound between the atmospheric epic sound with some subtle symphonic arrangements and heavy riffage throughout the whole songs. There's no moments wasted and the 4 tracks are all excellent, no filler, all killer like it should be. The 35 minutes album isn't too short though, I feel it's an appropriate duration for an hybrid genre like theirs as some of their influences kept unleashing overlong albums that were repetitive and in the end, dull.

Risen Prophecy is a band that doesn't mess around and delivers extremely well written thrashy power metal with a distinctive feel combining many classical influences that most metalheads can enjoy. It's epic, fun, well composed, not much more to ask for this sort of traditional metal.

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L'Airged l'amh – One Eyed God (2002) / 75%

Hellenic Metal Help Fund part II – Varangian Silver

A series highlighting the best of what the Greek underground metal scene has to offer. In this time of need for the legendary country, let's show our support by listening to their rich musical endeavors.

The Athenians formed this project way back in the 80s but this is their debut album released more than a decade after their inception. The name of the project is, based on some online translators I've tried is Irish for “raw silver” or “the silver arm” and that's a pretty lovely moniker but weird for a Greek band to use this foreign tongue. Instead of being influenced by the rich and interesting Greek mythology, these guys are more into Celtic heritage and Nordic tales (made obvious by the drawing of Odin on the cover and its related title. It's not that surprising though since it's well known that Vikings (Varangians for the Greeks) traveled everywhere in Europe and reached Sicily, Russia, Constantinople and obviously the Hellenic world and has influenced these cultures. Many centuries (or millenniums) later, this band emerged and offered their metal to the gods of old.

Throughout the seven songs, L'Airged l'amh demonstrates their ability to cover many different genres. They remind me of Blind Guardian's period before Nightfall In Middle-Earth, a period where the German legend was mixing heavy, power and folk metal (think of “Somewhere Far Beyond”). Furthermore, the vocals of John Georgopoulos (he's sharing the vocals duty with Stavros Giannakopoulos, who's the singer on their two other full lengths) easily remind the ones of Hansi Kürsch. L'Airged l'amh are a bit all over the place, they try their hand at overblown symphonic epic metal like on the second track “The Vision Revealed” and folk metal such as the serene acoustic debut of Yildrazil / One Eyed God or the Skyclad-ish break during “Dissention Seeds”. 

They have this sort of 1990s progressive power metal vibe with technically sound riffs and interesting leads. This is combined to their classy yet sometimes artificial background of epic symphonic metal and their traditional mix of heavy and old power metal. When they decide to move things up and play outright heavy metal, the dual guitars are making themselves obvious and the bass is quite in your face. While musically interesting and quite proficient at their instruments, it's a bit mundane sometimes, the extraneous elements the band is using save this from being a mediocre effort. The tracks are not too long and well garnished except the ten minutes closer, it drags a little too much. It's worth checking out if you like the aforementioned Blind Guardian and you're tired of spinning their records.

Moros Nyx - Rite of Rebellion (2015) / 77%

I discovered this band due to their presence on the awesome American true metal festival Ragnarokkr (that I'd like to attend one day) and due to their awesome artwork, I decided to give them a chance. The cover art of this demo (released digitally, on vinyl, on tape and on CD) is pure trad metal pushed to its cheesy apex. It looks like a scene out of a corny (but so enjoyable) fantasy/science fiction roleplaying game (don't forget to notice the pistol at the side of the knight) and I'd like to print the cover and color it! It reminds me of the amateurish charm of fellow Americans Realmbuilder, in any case it's much better than CGI/computerized art.

Musically, the Chicago natives are uncompromising in their revival nature. It's a mix of virile speed metal with heavy metal, power metal and even hard rock goodness. They preach at the altars of Dio (see both his solo career and his involvement with Rainbow), Helloween but also the old school attacks of US based Savage Grace or Brocas Helm. It's raw, melodic stuff but it's not sugary like modern power metal, it's fast, aggressive with high pitched vocals with some added venom to them. Some vocal melodies are straight from the Ronnie James book of wonders and Matt Papai (also guitars) is an apt vocalist and there's even an extra epic feel with some chanted background vocals (see the excellent track Child of the Dream)

After a short instrumental introduction with sorrowful leads and a horn preceding the battle, we get three blistering rippers full of catchy guitar leads and riffs. It's pretty well produced for a demo, it's groovy, the bass is present and enjoyable but the drums could be a bit more metallic and heavy. It's not adventurous, it's carefully written trad metal for the true fans of the genre. They shouldn't be expected to release some avant garde fuckery anyway. Even though it's called “Rite of Rebellion”, they're not rebelling against the old ways, they're embracing them. It's perfectly fine since their influences are solid.

The band has a lot of potential based on this demo, it was released more than a year ago so I bet they're working hard on a their debut full length.  Anyhow, this is an impressive first release from Moros Nyx and y'all should listen to it.

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Prajna – The Summer Eclipse (2014) / 94%

Bogota's Hidden Diamond

Andrés Felipe Murillo is a young Colombian man, he dresses well, he's into anime and Japanese video games like Touhou and he's a terrific musician. I'll have to admit he's a good friend of mine but this won't taint my judgement! I'm objective in the face of awesomeness and the first full length of this solo project is certainly phallus inducing.

Prajna used to be a full band but he always was the composer until he decided to davemustaine a little and fire everyone. He can do almost everything on his own and considering the Colombian scene is not very inclined to his genre of music (it prefers dumb thrash apparently) it doesn't quite matter if he plays gigs or not. Murillo composed everything and played all instruments on this debut, his first release since the impressive EP  “Lost in the Void” released three years ago. It took him a while to finish since he's also a full time student but it's top notch and well worth the wait for his small circle of fans throughout the interwebs.

The ten songs, forty six minutes full length is an impressive unique slab of heavy/power/speed metal and it really sounds professional even though there's no label support or anything of the sort. The drums were programmed but it's no biggie, the results can be of high quality nowadays and it's not the end of the world in my opinion. The production and mastering are pretty good considering the DIY approach, lots of time was dedicated to it and the mixing support of Charles Wong (another friend of mine) really helped the record. The riffs and solos are very well produced and nothing sounds wimpy and shallow.  Quite the contrary.

The dude is a very talented guitarist and he proves it throughout the whole deal with the numerous excellent solos (such as the catchy lead opening of “This World (Is Broken)” or the raw instrumental energetic finale of “Nowhere”.  It has a good amount of cool riffing too, it's fast paced, ultra melodic without being too cheesy and saccharine. The album is quite diverse too, it has some progressive elements like “Heart on Fire” with its ethereal piano background reminding me of the later modern stuff of Dark Tranquillity. The main influence here is Japanese video game music and anime though, it's mixed with the traditional metal sound to create something awesome and inspiring. Since I have basically no kawaii knowledge except for like Full Metal Alchemist and Cowboy Bebop, I can't truly get the references but eh, it's special and interesting. It's not quite apparent and I only know it's there because he told me but someone who isn't familiar won't get the Japanese references and it won't interfere with their enjoyment.

Murillo is influenced by the good stuff, like early German speed metal and American power metal. John Arch (Fates Warning) is definitely one of his influences vocally and that's always appreciated even though Arch can't be beaten. While his delivery is perhaps the only negative thing I can find here, he's not bad, he's simply pretty unconventional. His high pitched thick Spanish accent can be grating for some but I think it can be lovely and adorable when you get used to it! His delivery is high pitched, powerful but juvenile but no one can accuse him of not being true to himself. Even if he's not a top notch vocalist, his vocal lines are quite superb, he's not only a guitarist, that's for sure. As long as he doesn't get kidnapped by the FARC, I'm sure he can improve his skills! His English is pretty much perfect so the lyrics are well written, definitely better than many European power metal bands.

Catchy, fun, well written and honest metal is what is delivered here, through the immense, obscure talent of its composer, Prajna shines. Kiss the cook because this is tasty! It's a great mix of emotional shred, riffy speed metal, melodic power metal and it has many refreshing ideas. No lines snorting there, only legit stuff induced by hard work, true talent and vision.

Get the album for free on Bandcamp, pay more than 15 bucks to get a physical copy.

Andrés Felipe Murillo

Days of Yore - The Mad God's Wage (1997) | 93%

A bright jewel out of Québec's metal mines

I'm ashamed to say that I discovered this band due to a Danish friend who showed them to me. No one can always be a prophet in his country, eh ? I was really surprised by the quality of this album as I'm not really a fan of the Québécois power metal scene even though bands like Forgotten Realm or Icewind are quality but it's a bit too cheesy for my taste. Released in 1997, an era not well known for its power metal, especially this side of the Atlantic, The Mad God's Wage is a really and rich powerful album with a lot of nuances.

For some reasons, I thought of a mix of Rhapsody and Virgin Steele to describe Days of Yore's only full length album. They have the bombastic approach of the Italian LARPers and the intelligent and conceptual side of Defeis' seminal band. The album has 18 songs and it's a bit under an hour but there's seven songs under two minutes. These interludes are all pretty good and interesting, nevertheless, the album would had been stronger without that much clutter. An album like Symphony X's masterpiece V has a much stronger sense of progression and use a similar concept. Sometimes the short songs could just be integrated into the ''real'' ones such as the pretty useless ''Essence of God'' and its 36 seconds.  Despite my criticism on the format of the album, it's still a very good album and a pretty worthy example of epic power metal done well.

An unique quality of the album is the vocals, Jérôme Parent's delivery is high pitched and pretty powerful. While he could be more diverse, he's still enjoyable albeit somewhat tiring. He's an acquired taste but I don't hink most fans of power metal will have a problem with him. The vocals are pretty much non stop and aggressive when they're present, there's a certain sense of urgency to them. The vocal melodies are simply superb such as the ones in ''The Visage of Doom''. Unfortunately, he apparently refused to sign the contract the band got from Metal Blade and their last demo was released with the vocals of Sylvain Giguère, one of the guitarists. I'm not very knowledgeful about the scene back then but I can hypothetically say that this kind of music didn't have a lot of support, not like the situation is any better today. 

Both the lyrical themes and the atmosphere of the album are well presented and epic as fuck. Never bordering the cheesy kingdom of europower with their inane lyrics that would make J.R.R Tolkien lose his shit. The songwriting is shiny thoughout the course of the album, it's speedy and full of technical but feelsy solos such as in ''Imperilled Kingdom''.  The duel guitars (brothers Martin and Sylvain Giguère) are excellent, garnishing the music with awesome leads that are never superfluous and are always justifying the need for instrumental interludes. The bass is quite audible playing tasty licks and is a good counterpart to the guitars. The orchestrations are great and totally professional and can outclass the likes of Michael Romeo, it doesn't feel cheap and it's full of refinement. The production for a first album of a band outside of a vast scene is pretty much perfect, the guitars, the bass, the keyboards and the drums are all rightfully placed and nothing is overshadowing anothing. Melding fast paced power metal and deep and luscious neoclassical, the band succeeds at creating an epic aura of magnificence demonstrated by the magnum opus of the album, the six minutes ''Clash at Dawn''. Combining heavy solid riffs with a true sense of melody and sophistication is what Days of Yore were doing, not unlike other Canadian power bands like False Witness, they have the honesty to stay heavy even though they're integrating progressive and symphonic influences. Definitely an influence of the underrated American power metal scene. 

Saying this album is underrated is an understatement, the musicality is impressive and the songwriting is top notch. Listen to this album, my friends. A true shame it was their sole full length release, it's yet another case of a band that deserved a better career.