Drakkar – When Lightning Strikes (2012)

Delivering their first release in 10 years, today we have Drakkar and their latest release “When Lightning Strikes”. This Power Metal outfit from Italy apparently was one of the biggest band’s in the genre back in the 90’s and they now return with a very traditional sound… for the 90’s indeed. Powering through 15 tracks, this release is as vanilla as you can get with a very few decent songs.

In a time when everybody and their mom plays Power Metal, Drakkar does not offer much in terms of originality and even their well-executed songs sound very cliché and dull after a while. We have the dramatic fantasy inspired keyboard intro with “Hyperspace – The Arrival”, a very predictable track that just points out what is to come: predictable and very ‘normal’ music.

The guitar riffing is very typical of any Power Metal release and on tracks like “When Lightning Strikes” and “At the Flaming Shores of Heaven” there are some soaring guitar parts, but everything is just too plain to be fully enjoyed. The ‘epic chorus’ sections of the later song are pretty decent, but there comes a point where the band starts sounding like they are just playing it safe and only by the book.

We are most certainly not saying that Drakkar is a bad band, since all of their musicians are excellent and brings the songs to life very well. The production quality behind the drums, guitars, keyboards, and vocals is top notch, but the band is just lacking skills to write engaging songs that people (or at leats us) would get into. They sound very outdated and their songs are very linear and predictable.

Not all being totally bad, tracks like “New Frontier” and “Revenge is Done” are the only two worth rescuing from this release. The excellent guitar leads and psychedelic keyboards on the “Revenge is Done” are excellent, too bad this song is crammed out in the ‘limbo section’ of the album (tracks 1 to 14).

If you are nostalgic for some late 90’s Power Metal, then “When Lightning Strikes” should be on your to buy list. However, if you like a more modern approach to things and songs that are less predictable and formulaic, you are better off buying some other release.

Release: January 16th, 2012

Country: Italy