Power Metal

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    Grave Digger – The Clans Will Rise Again (2010)

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    Celebrating 30 years of the band’s existence, Grave Digger comes at us with one of their most impressive releases in their career. With “The Clans Will Rise Again”, the band goes somewhat back into their “Tunes of War” era and continues to sing about Scotland. Since the first song with the bagpipes, you get the feeling this album will be nothing short from epic.

    Chris Boltendahl vocals are as characteristic as always and greatly keep the Grave Digger sound alive. As the only remaining original member, he brings to the table all the experience of kicking ass and taking names over the span of 30 years. The rest of the band does a great job in capturing the old-school vibe of the genre and keeping it fresh with interesting keyboard sections and brilliant guitar riffs/solos.

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    Revolution Renaissance – Trinity (2010)

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    “Trinity” is the swansong release of Revolution Renaissance, a band formed by Timo Tolkki after his departure from Stratovarius in 2008. This release features a vibe very similar to Stratovarius back in the old days, and for over 45 minutes, we get treated to some brilliant simple-yet-elegant Power Metal songs that never sound dull or pretentious.

    Love him or hate him, Timo Tolkki is one of the best guitarists that Metal has produced over the years, and his music songwriting abilities are equally impressive. Most of his stuff with Stratovarius and Revolution Renaissance previous albums are proof of his abilities (except for his terrible last two ‘solo’ albums). In “Trinity” he sticks to the basics of traditional Power Metal, with epic vocals (courtesy of Gus Monsanto), catchy guitar melodies, brilliant solos, super tight drumming, and subtle keyboard arrangements.

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    Iron Fire – Metalmorphosized (2010)

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    Ever wonder how can you royally screw up the flow of an album?, just listen to Metalmorphosized and you will have the perfect example of how not too structure your release. Featuring 3 new songs (tracks 1, 3, 8 and 10) and 9 more from the band’s demos between 2001 and 2006, “Metalmorphosized” showcases Iron Fire’s metamorphosis in terms of sound between the years.

    Immediately you can notice that “Metalmorphosized” is a ‘stitched together’ release because the way the sound of the band changes between songs. The only common denominator of this release is the band’s signature Power Metal sound and Martin Steene’s characteristic vocals. The new songs are definetly better written (and sounding) than most of the band’s older stuff presented here, but the vocal ‘experiments’ get to be very annoying sometimes.

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    Kamelot – Poetry for the Poisoned (2010)

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    Three years after releasing “Ghost Opera”, Kamelot is finally back with a very different and ambitious album then ever before. The band steps aside of their traditional Power Metal roots and takes an exploratory journey with progressive elements. This creates a very dark and yet refined release that will most likely please most fans of the band, but will leave some in the dark.

    Our first impression of this album was not completely favorable since we expected something to sound more like older Kamelot releases. But upon exploring our 3rd, 4th, and 5th time we started to appreciate the album from its differences to older releases rather than the similarities. You will find the traditional vocal melodies of Roy, the impressive guitar work of Thomas, and all the other individual elements that make Kamelot a great band, but in different doses and with extra elements that elevate the band’s sound.

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    Blind Guardian – At the Edge of Time (2010)

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    For the some fans of the band “A Twist in the Myth” was a somewhat mediocre release, but with “At the Edge of Time” they return as powerful as ever. With a very epic release, Blind Guardian shows no signs of succumbing to mediocrity and will blow you away with around 60 minutes of pure unadulterated Power Metal with some Symphonic and Progressive elements.

    As you can expect, the songwriting on “At the Edge of Time” is both inspired and magical. With only a few sub par sections, all 10 songs in the regular edition of the CD are pure Blind Guardian magic. Being a bit more epic than on their last release, we finally get powerful songs that will have you chanting as you prepare to march into battle.

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    Helstar - Rising From The Grave (2010)

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    Today we have the Metal Blade re-release of legendary Helstar’s albums: “A Distant Thunder”, “Nosferatu” and “Twas the Night of a Helish X-Mas” is a boxed set that also includes the DVD of “Twas the Night of a Helish X-Mas”. For those of you that don’t know Helstar is a Power/Speed Metal band from the USA that released some epic albums back in the 80’s before disappearing for a while.

    All these three releases featured in the “Rising From The Gave” boxed set feature remastered versions of “A Distant Thunder” and “Nosferatu” and indeed these two great albums sound better than ever. We did not receive the 3rd and live CD for review, so we can’t really say much about this part of the boxed set.

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    Iron Fate – Cast in Iron (2010)

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    All the way from Germany today we have Iron Fate and their debut album “Cast in Iron”. This relatively new band features an interesting ‘slower paced’ combination of Heavy/Power Metal with some Thrash elements, we say ‘slower paced’ since this band never goes to 200 mph’s and lacks a bit of the epicness that the genre calls for.

    The first thing you will notice about Iron Fate is their extremely versatile (and good) vocalist Denis Brosowski. This front-man can hit notes and resemble almost any Heavy/Power metal vocalist in the scene in a very impressive fashion. While the music behind this great singer is average, we feel that this is what brings Iron Fate down and (for now) stops them from being a great Heavy/Power Metal band.

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    Triosphere – The Road Less Traveled (2010)

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    Powered by Ida Haukland’s powerful vocals, today we have Triosphere and their second full-length release “The Road Less Traveled”. This album features a very interesting combination of Power Metal with some Progressive elements and hugely characteristic female vocals. We get tons of female fronted bands each year, but Triosphere immediately stands out because of her singer’s more ‘old school’ deeper vocal style.

    With over 50 minutes of music, “The Road Less Traveled” makes a huge impression since the beginning with a very powerful opening (after the intro) Progressive/Power Metal sound, then it quickly mellows down to a more slower but equally impressive sound that shifts between the previously mentioned genres but focusing more on guitar and vocal melodies that at some points they hit hard rock territories.

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    Magica – Dark Diary (2010)

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    Since 2002 Magica has been gracing us with very interesting and consistent releases, “Dark Diary” is not an exception to this trend and shows the band embracing a more Gothic Power Metal sound than their original Power/Melodic Heavy Metal sound from their earlier albums.

    With a new bass guitarist and a new drummer, the band is sounding as good as ever. The band’s music is somewhat very symphonic, but it never gets to be ‘too much’ like other bands that sound like a Star Wars soundtrack with vocals plastered on top. We love when bands know when to balance their synth/keyboard use to not overwhelm the listener with needless epicness.

    • Posted By: Dark Emperor
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    Rage – Strings To A Web (2010)

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    This legendary German Heavy/Power Metal trio is back with yet another solid album. This band is currently celebrating their 25th year anniversary and what better way to do it with a super Heavy Metal release. Featuring Peter "Peavy" Wagner as the only founding member, the band has featured guitar virtuoso Victor Smolski since 1999 and recently (20070 added drummer Andre Hilgers. All of these musicians have heaps of experience in making solid music over the years.

    The main appeal of a band such as Rage is the ability to write epic choruses and you can’t get any better than them for this task. Keeping a very traditional Heavy Metal sound this band can change the course of a song from just ‘good’ to plain epic with their perfectly crafted choruses. While some of them might sound a bit too soft, there is nothing soft about the overall power this band displays in “Strings To A Web”.

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