Armory – The Dawn Of Enlightenment (2007)

When I first listened to this CD of this American band I was blown away, it sounded like any other big name, and big quality European Power Metal band. I had to go back and re-read that it was actually an American band. To make things worse, this band is still un-signed! I’m amazed by this fact. There are tons of other bands that are signed that have less than half the quality that Armory has.

Armory has been around since 2001 and has only released one demo in 2004, which was latter re-recorded to make the debut album “The Dawn Of Enlightenment”.  So this means it took all these years for the band to polish their first opus and by all means they achieved a very solid and impressive first album.

One of the things that makes or breaks a Power metal album is the vocals, and while this genre is not my favorite I’ve listened to enough bands to know what vocalists are good and which ones are completely terrible. Adam Kurland does a great job handling vocals here, his range is pretty good and his voice never gets annoying. The vocals seem to be always in tune, which is a problem that I’ve seen with many newcomer Power Metal bands.

After Armory passed the vocals test, it’s time to take apart the music by instrument. And here is where the quality of the band lies, since every musician excels at their instrument and they show they can play together and create great melodic songs. The drum track lays a perfect foundation that hooks the listener with plenty of speed changes and different sections that don’t get too repetitive like many other bands do. The bass guitar is perfectly mixed so you can notice it, and it provides that extra kick to the songs.

The guitar work is very good in this album, providing the perfect melody for the vocalist to sing over. The solos are very good and perfectly timed to not get too annoying or over done, which is a very hard thing to do when composing songs for this genre. Lastly, the keyboards are pretty solid and provide the necessary sound for this bands music to work as a whole, they are never over the top and when they are needed for a solo they blend perfectly with the rest of the music.

I’m very impressed with this debut album and the band in general, I wish they can land a record deal soon so they can show that there are also new American bands that can play great Power metal. The overall sound production of this CD is top notch and it showcases the music to perfection. If you are a fan of this genre, you better get this CD.

Release: 2007

Country: USA