Armoured IV Pain

"Armored IV Pain" is quite enjoyable. The album cover is pretty sweet and the beginning of each song is enticing and interesting. A debut album like this would be any band's dream. I always love a band that already are and sound like pros at music when they record their first album.

It sounds like a mix of Helloween and Firewind, which I like, but also brings me to one criticism I have of this album: it gets too typical/plain. We all know the stereotypes and commonly used techniques and phrases in whichever metal genre you are in to, and if you are in to power metal, you probably know about the Helloween enthusiast bands. "Armored IV Pain", while the music is good, it just kind of sounds like towards the middle of every song, it just gets too plain, too basic, and much alike other stuff we all have heard. Perhaps the musicians got less enthusiastic throughout making each song to where they're just looking to complete every song. If that's the case, I would advise Shadowquest to maintain the motivation they have at the beginning of each song throughout the whole album to make each song memorable and enticing. I've had this problem myself in my compositions where I have this great idea, I write it down, start a song off of it, then by the time I get to the verse and the rest of the song (except for the solo), I look at what I have written and it's just filler and monotonous and uninteresting and over-done. Take time to write something great and enticing (it doesn't always have to be bombastic and lightning fast; be actively creative) for every song. Remember your influences, but use your own mind too.

Despite the that "Armored IV Pain" might get plain and typical often, the guitar solos are very creative and memorable. I wouldn't give the title, 'impeccable' to it, but I love them. At times, I would say that the solo saved the song when it might have gotten to those "typical" spots. The guitarist kind of sounds like Gus G./Kai Hansen.

In closing, Shadowquest is a band with great talent and skill. It saddens me that they, and many bands like them, just go unnoticed. And if they are noticed, the common folk just go, 'meh'. Well, that's a very long-going metal problem so I won't harp on that too long. I would recommend this album to anyone looking for some unknown bands.