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Drakkar > Run with the Wolf > Reviews > slayrrr666
Drakkar - Run with the Wolf

The wolf gives us a run for his money - 81%

slayrrr666, June 19th, 2017
Written based on this version: 2015, 2CD, My Kingdom Music (Digipak)

One of the scene’s finest acts, Italian power metal heroes Drakkar have cemented their status at the top of the country’s act having been one of the first groups to emerge and have remained remarkably consistent throughout that run. Taking things to the extreme on their 20th anniversary, the group’s fifth overall album was released March 16, 2015 on My Kingdom Music with a special bonus CD of re-recorded tracks from their first three albums.

This here is quite an adept and professional style approach to power metal that makes for quite an impactful and dynamic style. Raging along with a tighter, much crunchier riffing style than most traditional power metal acts, this gives the group a more traditionally-minded approach that leaves the album with a heavy dynamic that meshes incredibly well with the explosive keyboard melodies that are sprinkled throughout here. Even when it drops the power metal stylings for a fine mid-tempo plod, this one doesn’t lose much steam as the riff-centered approach keeps the riffing style far more in line with a stylistic crunch that keeps this one rather consistent with itself and helps to sell the whole experience in a streamlined, coherent manner. The streamlined nature here does come back as the albums’ most glaring flaw here with the generally explosive fire usually found by the band which does pop up into a couple tracks here but isn’t consistently a part of their sound to generate the kind of impact here had it been more prominent. Part of that is due to the low-level production which undercuts the guitars which are such a featured part of the album, but overall this is what somewhat lowers this one.

Despite not necessarily going for the kill as often as it really should, this is still a highly enjoyable and engaging variation of their traditional sound that manages to overcome it often enough does enough to give this a firm appeal to fans of their past work or the more crunchy heavy/power metal crowd.