Another Return

I found this album while surfing around on a forum, where somebody mentioned the band Artch. I though it was a misspelling, but it turns out it's just a nice Norwegian power metal band.

So, the deal with this is album is that it is a very basic, classic metal influenced album. It has some nice lyrics that are sung well (not screamed), a few memorable riffs, a nice drum beat, and the occasional bass fill. Not a bad setup, no complaints there. The thing that makes this band worth your time though is the vocals. Eric Hawk reminds me some of Ronnie James Dio and a few other classic metal artists, so basically it's a more modern addition to the family.

Enough of that... Anyway, the hits of this album are definitely Another Return to Church Hill (the title track with a very memorable riff and some interesting lyrics to it); Loaded (great vocals on this one plus a nice, catchy riff); Where I Go (the ballad of this album, a true masterpiece); and Living In The Past (almost tricks you into thinking it's a ballad, but then it turns into these soaring vocals and pulsing rhythms).

Only two problems I have with the album, the first being that Conversio Prelude seems to serve no purpose, and it's nothing like the rest of the album, so it's rather misleading. The second problem being that the songs all seem to slow down between the end of the previous song and the beginning of the new song, which lead me to skipping around to different songs a lot.

To conclude, the album is pretty good overall, especially from a pretty much unknown band. I would buy this album (in fact, I did), and I'd encourage others to do so too.