The Dark Age

I am running out of superlatives when it comes to Greek metal music, but here we are again with another new and unknown act. Out of nowhere Evil King hit the scene, and they do so in thundering manner. Consisting of four brave metal warriors they have just released their full length debut “The Dark Age” – for the moment being in digital format, but soon as physical edition by the rising Italian label Elevate Records. Consisting of nine epic hymns (plus intro) and a playing time of nearly 50 minutes their approach is firmly rooted in the Greek tradition of combining fantastic melodies and a great punch. Fans of classic (power) metal can skip my review and order the album straight away, as this is a safe bet for fans of the genre.

A spoken word intro sets the mood for the forthcoming journey before the first song “Jerusalem” enters the stage. Starting pretty epic in the first moments the tracks settles in a nice mid-tempo groove before the first of many captivating bridge-chorus sections is thrown at the listener. Evil King have no official keyboard player among their ranks, but some symphonic samples are used in the background to lend the music an additional layer of subtle bombast. Next we got the title track, hitting a bit harder and faster. This is more or less the recipe for the whole album as Evil King offer a perfect mixture of more laid back parts and songs and sections where the tempo is upped and they just let go. One aspect which is consistent throughout is the high quality of the harmonies, as nearly each song hits that soft spot we power metal fans are craving for.

Evil King’s music cannot be described progressive in any way, but it is heavy, melodic and catchy from start to finish and comes with some fantastic performances. The guitars are impressive and the fast solos never seem out of place or just shoved into the song for the sake of it. Instead they often work as some kind of link between verse and bridge/chorus sections. One thing some European power metal acts tend to forget is that the main ingredient of metal should always be the riffs, and Evil King do not fall into the trap of concentrating more on some speed acrobatics and overly sugary hooks, but also throw in some meaty chords. They manage to present their music in a way that it is always accessible while never sounding completely generic.

There’s some slightly thrashy guitar work at points, as well as brief bursts of harsher vocals (no growls though) and also a few female ones, but all in all Evil King do not leave the boundaries of the genre. The rhythm section is doing their best to dictate the pace in convincing manner and leave the main stage to the guitar magic and the voice of singer Pablo, who does a great job. He can deliver choruses nicely and does so frequently on this album, and he also does a good job of singing softly from time to time, but for the most part, he sticks to being very intense, and he isn’t afraid to throw in some epic falsettos, either. This lad surely does not need to hide from the bigger names of the scene.

So what else is left to say? The production is spot on, with the guitars having a nice crunchy tone and the drums packing a good punch. The mix is transparent enough with all the instruments and details having got enough room to breathe. For a self-produced album this is fairly impressive. The cover artwork is somehow cheesy, but comes with the classic charm of the genre so I will look out for the digipak edition. All in all “The Dark Age” is a strong statement from a new voice of the scene and Evil King should join the ranks of other fantastic Greek acts in their mission to conquer the world wide metal throne.