The Last Alliance

This is a surprise for me actually, I bought Sword's Song a while back and loved it, while nothing special it was certainly entertaining with plenty of catchy sing along moments and how can you not love the beautiful Kaisa's vocals? It was definitely somewhat lacking but still good, then I heard Third Age of the Sun and was a bit disappointed, lacking even more than Sword's Song... I had pretty much given up on Battlelore thinking them to be a one hit wonder. Then I happened to hear that their newest albums, most particularly Evernight was a bit darker and in a better direction, with a mature sense of songwriting. And after checking their Myspace and hearing the single from this new album, I knew I was wrong for doubting them.

Yes, Third Age of the Sun is a big mistep, but they seemed to have gotten themselves together here (I can't judge for the previous album though). Battlelore have brought in more here, on Sword's Song it was primarily Kaisa singing in her lovely melodic voice, with some background harsh vocals here and there, but it typically was a very formulaic approach. The Last Alliance is a testament to Battlelore's maturity and evolution; incorporating some amazing standout clean male vocals, in addition to Kaisa singing clean with her soothing voice. The harsh vocals are better as well, I remember on Sword's Song they seemed to be very lacking in a bit, being one dimensional as well with little variation. Here they've grown to be a harsher rasp that is still understandable and decipherable, as well as the balance between clean and harsh vocals becoming less generic and a bit more to enjoy.

Third Immortal opens up the album in a great way, a catchy as anything song, with loads of melodic metal moments filled with the noticeable symphonic and "epic" elements. The synths and keys fit in nicely, nothing overbearing (something I hate, unless you're Rhapsody). Third Immortal keeps it up with a great chorus, being a stand out Battlelore song, up there with Buccaneer's Inn off Sword's Song. Exile the Daystar is like one step forward and two steps back, it's great to see them keeping up the new approach of a better song structure, but it's a bit mid paced and loses the interest towards the end. Next up is The Great Gathering, the whole fucking reason I decided to check out this album. Remember Sons of Riddermark off Sword's Song? Yeah you fans know what I'm talking about, that was the fucking soundtrack to Lord of the Rings right there, and this keeps up the tradition of being so fucking epic with amazing choral work and background singing in addition to Tomi's best harsh vocals to date. Oh yeah, most people complain about symphonic metal lacking the balls to create riffs? Well this won't blow you away, they're no Artillery, but they've gotten the melodic riffing down straight up there, even a bit of melodeath vibe coming out, fuck yeah Battlelore!

The rest of the album continues to show Battlelore's progression and evolution as a band, I don't know what it is I suppose, maybe they've gotten a bigger budget and have had a better chance to sit down and record some better tunes; whatever it is it works here. Guardians continues to show Kaisa and her amazing and melodious tone, it's a slow ballad-esque type song that keeps it at a good pace with a really catchy chorus and mood of an ominous approach storm with some great harmonizing of clean male and female vocals, and once again the matured harsh vocals pick up and kick ass. The Last Alliance is a long album that is definitely top heavy, with most of the best songs featured at the beginning of the album. A few filler tracks can be spotted throughout the middle of the album, but other stand outs are noticed with both Epic Dreams and Moontower showing off again how they've pulled off a great transformation.

With The Last Alliance, Battlelore have truely impressed me. I really enjoyed Sword's Song but it lacked the lasting memorability that can be found here. This certainly isn't anything completely original and amazing, but having been following these guys for a couple years now it's nice to see this step forward. This still isn't perfect, there are some filler songs that should have been thrown out or could have been fixed, but I'm glad to see that it's fairly obvious the pros outweigh the cons here. There are loads of new changes they have made since I last saw them and I am really enjoying it. I can't exactly say how different this is from Evernight but a big step up from Third Age of the Sun, so I hope if you had any interest in Sword's Song, Battlelore or Tolkien-influenced metal that you will check this out.