?ool sweden power /now
Already formed back in 2005, it took this Swedish band a rather long time to release this debut album. The first orchestral and fast part and growl at the beginning of the song “Wherever I Go” sets you on the wrong path. It sounds like a start of a new Dimmu Borgir album, but after 10 seconds you hear the style you can expect on the rest of the album; melodic power metal in the vain of Helloween, Kamelot and Symphony X.
The tempo of the most tracks is rather high and on occasion the growling vocals return. These growls are below average and I think they should hire a real growler for those parts next time. Vocalist Ola Halén however sounds very good and has the perfect clean singing style for the band. Powerful, very clear and enough variation, he easily varies from low to high. The strength of the band however is the heavy riffing. They form a good balance with the keyboard parts and give the album a certain heaviness. Like I already wrote, there are growling parts and on several albums this works, but I don’t think they add anything to the songs here. Especially because they are not good and through that, had better been left away completely.
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