Building the Tower

Building the Tower is basically an amazing demo cheapened by production. The music is wonderful, heavy Power Metal with synths complementing the other instruments rather than hopelessly overpowering them. Unfortunately, everything is far below the vocals in the mix, and the band's main weak point is their singer's voice. To begin with, it just isn't much of a singing voice. To make matters worse, he switches awkwardly between harsh and traditional vocals.

"Lake of Treasures" sports easily the worst vocals on the demo -- some of the worst vocals in Metal. If not for the other songs, I'd swear this was just a really talented joke band. Aside from the synth being a little bit over-prominent in some parts, however, this is a very good song otherwise. Aside from the vocal treatment of "diamonds and crystals and goooooooooooURRHRHRRGRGRGRRGD," this is a very epic song with some great riffs.

It is followed by the far thrashier "The Assasin," which gets the ass-kicking started proper. Antti's vocals are bearable here, and the guitars are amazing. Imagine an old Trad-Power band with a tastefully-employed synth and a fair bit more aggression. Riffs are plentiful and memorable.

The last song, "Metsänvaltias," is refreshingly Finnish. Other than the language change, it continues in the vein of "The Assasin," though it leans far more toward epic rather than thrashy. The music is a little bit monotonous in that it continues with similar triplet riffs throughout much of the song, and the beginning of the solo doesn't really work, but these are really minor complaints for a great song.

All in all, everything except for the first song is fantastic by the standards of signed bands in the genre, and the whole demo is available for free on the band's website, so it's at least worth checking out. I'd recommend this heavily to any fans of Blind Guardian et al, Jag Panzer, early In Flames, or any other heavy Trad or Power Metal band.