Anthems of Conquest

Angeleli di piatrea. Aneglie del Petroe. Angilenina da… for fuck’s sake who calls their band like that? Apart from Italians, obviously? Ok one of the members has an Italian name but those guys are from Belgium… I don’t get it. It’s also strangely Rhapsody of Fire-ish… But that’s as far as the comparison goes.

On the other hand, Anthems of Conquest blew me away. Not in a “wow this is the best band ever” fashion, but my expectations where quite low. Let’s be honest, Belgium isn’t renowned for its metal export. I was very surprised to discover that not only the music was good, but that this album sounded very professional. I guess the mastering at Jacob Hansen’s studio has to do with it.

The style of the band is difficult to describe, there’s a little bit of “everything metal” in there. The main influences seem to be Folksy-Viking metal, and power metal, with clean female and male vocals, and grunts. First I feared the female vocals would sound gothic, but it is not the case, except maybe in Boadicea (again, what’s with the names!). And it fits this particular song very well. There is a symphonic aspect to some songs, other are full-on in your face metal masterpieces.

Those guys know how to put a metal song together. Intro’s, flamboyant solo’s (Belgians can play the guitar? Since when??), tension-building bridges, catchy choruses and so on, it’s all there. Here and there you have those short instrumentals serving as intros or interludes, and then the rage starts again. This is good stuff.

Another surprise was the keyboard solo on Fate of the Promised Land - Mark of the Scimitar. It sounded different from the rest of the album, and yet the sound was familiar… I checked the metal archives and discovered it was a guest appearance by Daniel Mÿhr from Sabaton. Nice touch, it adds some extra dimension to the song.

Now for the lesser aspects. One of them being the name of the band. The name is kind of cool, Google translate tells me it means Angels of Stone or something like that. But who can pronounce or even remember it after seeing it once? This will not help their ascension to popularity. Another point of attention is the production. I said before it sounds professional, but sometimes it feels like they compressed the short symphonic interludes a bit too much, which is a pity really.

Overall this is a very good album. There is still margin for growth, but that’s the case with 99,99% of the bands out there. The elements used to forge this music are nothing new, but the combination makes it all sound really fresh. Favorites:

I Am Spartacus
The Battle of Camlann
Onwards to Asgaard

For fans of Ensiferum, Arkona, Eluveitie, Kivimetsän Druidi (another insane band name!) and power metal in general.