Style: US power metal, progressive metal (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Virgin Steele, Iced Earth, Blind Guardian, Iron Maiden, early Fates Warning
Review by: Sam
Country: United Kingdom
Release date: 27 September, 2019
[EDITOR’S NOTE: This review was originally published in the September 2019 issue of The Progressive Subway]
During the album of the year 2018 list, I said that my taste could roughly be represented by two bands: Dream Theater and Opeth. This however, is false, as there is a third component to what makes the sam1oq. I have a big love for both heavy and power metal, and if I had to pick a band to best represent this I’d probably say Virgin Steele. They have both the heavy metal riffs and the power metal aesthetics. This band played a style called US Power Metal (USPM in short). It traded the blues roots of NWOBHM for some extra power and laid the groundwork for power metal as we know it today (which is also known as EUPM since that originated in Europe). There are roughly two styles of this. One was aggressive, often close to speed and/or thrash metal, and the other one was more melodic and progressive. The former style has seen a bit of a revival in recent years, but the latter is about as dead as my guinea pig. Nonetheless, I absolutely adore USPM. Hence when I found out there was this band called Starborn playing the progressive style and was actually good at it, I completely freaked out.
And holy fuck is this band good. I know it’s a cliché, but I fell in love within the first minute. Riffs, riffs, riffs. I said this was of the melodic variety, but Savage Peace is one of the heaviest power metal you’ll ever hear, of any kind. The riffs are chunky, aggressive and just generally badass as fuck. It is like something you’d hear in thrash metal, but then without ever becoming actual thrash. It’s a twin guitar attack however, so there’s also a dude playing the leads and pretty melodies over the neck breakers and holy hell it WORKS. Starborn makes you feel like you can run through a brick wall, but at the same time you transcend into a new state of existence while rolling around with puppies. The melodies are absolutely gorgeous and the lead playing is fantastic. And sometimes they don’t even go for a regular melody, but just guitar solo their asses off despite being nowhere close to the bridge. Let alone when they unleash the shredding in the actual bridges.
This band is just really freaking tight. The songs are eventful and dynamic. It’s full of tempo shifts, AMAZING shredding and all around just highly memorable. Speaking of tempo, the drummer is FANTASTIC. He does it all. 16th note hi-hat grooves? Got it. Sick ride bell patterns? You bet. Creative use of double bass? Hell yeah. He even put in blast beats at some point, in Power Metal of all things. He’s constantly varying up his playing so it doesn’t ever get close to being boring. This band is just all around amazing at songwriting. I already mentioned the instrumental aspects being kickass, and the vocals are no less good. What we have here is a classic 80s banshee. A piercing falsetto voice with just an unmistakable power behind it. He has a very John Arch [early Fates Warning ed.] way of going completely astray of what the rest is doing but still sounding awesome while doing so. His resulting vocal lines are weird yet super catchy. It’s a very impressive performance.
Unfortunately, I now have to give you the obligatory “Not all is good” paragraph. As indeed, not all is good about Savage Peace, mostly because of a constant sonic onslaught. There is far too much reverb on the crashes, making them obnoxiously loud, and the guitars have too much treble, the combination of which busts my eardrums. And despite how good their riff game is, I’m sorely missing gentler, more melodic parts that provide some respite from the intensity. “I Am the Clay” is a mini-epic halfway through which tries to amend this, but it works more in theory than it does in practice as its melodic beginning falls flat under a plodding groove and vocal lines that lack beauty, and halfway through it smashes the brakes anyway. After two more neckbreaker tracks, there’s an amazing Crimson Glory-esque haunting melodic section at the end of “Inked in Blood” which does everything I wanted from the band and the title track closer is an amazing dynamic composition, but it’s all too little too late.
On the whole though, Savage Peace is an amazing record. Despite some pacing issues and one or two weaker tracks, this is absolutely one of the best things in this particular style I have heard in a looong time. Starborn cemented themselves along the top USPM crowd with this album. This is a stunning debut, and unless you’re one of those people who deems nearly every Heavy Metal act an Iron Maiden clone, chances are big you’ll like this band as much as I did. Do recommend.
Recommended tracks: Existence Under Oath, Darkness Divine, Inked in Blood, Savage Peace
You may also like: Witherfall, Tyrant, Existence
Final verdict: 8.5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Metal-Archives page
Label: Iron Shield Records – Website | Facebook
Starborn is:
– Jonny Kelsey (bass)
– Daniel Alderson (drums)
– Sean Atkinson (guitar)
– Christopher Foley (guitar)
– Bruce Turnbull (vocals)
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