Style: power metal, progressive metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Rhapsody, Angra, DragonForce
Review by: Sam
Country: US-TX
Release date: 26-09-2018
[EDITOR’S NOTE: This review was originally published in the September 2018 edition of The Progressive Subway]
There are roughly speaking three styles of prog power. The first is what you’d most likely associate when hearing the genre: take standard power metal, but then with some added progressive metal hallmarks like odd-time signatures, crazy transitions and technicality (think Angra or Kamelot). The second style basically takes the Dream Theater template, but uses power metal riffs instead without going for the over-the-top Rhapsody approach (think Pagan’s Mind, Symphony X, Seventh Wonder). Then there’s a third style which is more loosely defined of riff-driven power metal. This is basically all prog heavy/power or thrash/power metal bands. Some well known bands would be Savatage, Nevermore and the earlier mentioned Ghost Ship Octavius. This is obviously of the first style.
Bar the one minute opener, you’re immediately bombarded with high tempo double bass patterns, huge synths, speedy riffs and soaring vocals. “Yes, this is power metal alright” was my reaction upon hearing this. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially when the music is executed with such a frightening precision. Both in terms of technical and songwriting ability these guys are extremely tight. The songs are dynamic, varied and packed to the brim.
This album just doesn’t ever become boring. You can jump in at almost any given point and you’ll be swept away by all the madness. At almost every corner there’s a great riffs, insane drumming or charismatic vocals taking you along. And just when you’re tiring out on the constant power metal onslaught, they surprise you with a proggy genre switch-up or suddenly it turns into a ballad. Oh, and did I mention that their guitarist plays guitar and keyboard at the same time?
Finding any fault in this album musically, is hard. It’s all done with such aplomb and grandeur it feels like the only thing you can do is sit down in your chair and marvel at all the splendor they have created. If anything, all this grandeur is also the album’s biggest weakness. It’s only 48 minutes, but after half an hour your ears just beg for some peace and quiet. There’s the song Fall which provides a nice change of pace, but coming in at track 8 it’s too little too late. Another ballad halfway through would have majorly improved the album’s pacing, because for the most part this album has tech death levels of things going on.
What’s also not helping the album is the extremely plastic production. The drums sound programmed and the guitars sound like they were recorded for Avenged Sevenfold. And as good and soaring as the vocals may be, they still get overshadowed in the mix behind all the drum and guitar madness.
So that leads me to the conclusion of this review. Age of Revolution is like buying a sack of candy in Japan. While the candy itself can be great, every piece is stuffed behind three layers of plastic packaging, so you can’t help but feel your morals eating away at you for all the wasted plastic. Purely from a songwriting standpoint this is a fantastic debut, but the plastic production and the poor pacing ultimately prevent it from being a truly great album
Recommended tracks: Zephon, Never to Return, Fall
You may also like: Novareign, Lanfear, Aquaria
Final verdict: 8/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Label: M-Theory Audio – Bandcamp | Facebook
Immortal Guardian is:
– Carlos Zema (vocals)
– Gabriel Guardiola (guitars, keyboards)
– Cody Gilliland (drums)
– Thad Stevens (bass)
0 Comments