Tales of Ancient Prophecies

Heavy metal is a genre that is sometimes considered to be cheesy, but no subgenre more so than power metal (especially symphonic power metal). This release does not fight against that by any means. But once you get past all of that, you find something that is made of gold. This album contains musicianship that is nothing short of incredible and they are all pretty great on their instruments (as well as the vocalist). There is also a rather large sound, music wise on this album. There just seems to be a big wall of music here. This is not only created by the keyboards. The backing vocals, as well as the deep drumming, compliments it more than anything besides that. Quite possibly just as much. Although the cheese is an obstacle, this all helps out against all of it and delivers a pretty great release by a band that you have to take a bit of time to warm up to, in order to have the ability to enjoy the music that they make. Most stuff like this is amateur and has sloppy music, with vocalists that think that they are the next Bruce Dickinson. This is not the case here at all. As nostalgic as this is of the early work of Rhapsody, or the early work of Avantasia, there are lots of creativity that are to be discovered on this release.

Much of the music is uplifting and massive in sound, despite the lack of heaviness and occasionally flowery sound (always flowery lyrics). I would not call all uplifting and lighter metal flowery. That would mean that the music sounds small. Songs that represent this well include the opener of the album, as well as tracks like "Fall of the Eternal Winter" and "Forest of Destiny". However, sometimes it just gets too cheesy for its own good. What some of these tracks take the form of are just silly and don't even have the music to back it up as much as it is able to. There are a couple of tracks where you cannot even tell much of a different. Some would say the same about DragonForce, but this is mainly due to the formula, as well as the usual 200 BPM tempo, but they have varying musical structures and make different structures within their limits, which is something that is not very often seen on this release. The songs are not extremely similar, but they could definitely have more variety. For this reason, I will discuss my least favorite song on the album. It's actually the only bad song on the album that isn't an interlude. "Sword of Magic Steel"... THAT song is probably the cheesiest piece of music that I have ever listened to in my entire life. It seems as though they are TRYING to get themselves and their music alike to be ridiculed. This was absolutely appalling. I also never really liked the second track on the album either, as it just sounds like the melody that it focuses on is just too lackluster for its own good.

Now that I have gotten the bad out of the way, let me discuss the highlights. One is the opening track, which is the fastest song on the album. It's an absolutely soaring track with some instrumental work that will blow you right away. I also enjoy "Twilight Horizon", as it seems like it had a lot of thought put into the song structure and it has some great solos. Although the chorus is rather silly, everything else sounds good. In fact, I liked the chorus a lot more when it was played the last time in a higher key. The vocals weren't quite as high and their melody actually sounded rather beautiful. Not tear-jerking, but beautiful. "Fall of the Eternal Winter" has some drumming that was very well-crafted and it has a pretty cool chorus in it. I also love the solos. They are some of my favorite ones on the album. Right before the last solo kicks in, you hear a guttural scream. It could appear to sound out of place, but it actually just gives way more energy to the listener, in preparation for the final chorus in a higher key. My next highlight is "Forest of Destiny". At first, I didn't really like this song all that much. I thought that it was an uninspired ripoff of the rest of the music of the album. Then I listened to it a few more times and realized how catchy and well-crafted it really is. This one right here is a grower, alrighty. My final highlight just happens to be my absolute favorite track on the album. It is the final track off of the album, "Gates of Glory". I can totally understand why this was chosen as the single of the album. It's the catchiest song on the album, the most well-structured song on the album and also quite possibly the most uplifting song on the album. The high amount of instruments plus the high amount of backing vocals give this song one hell of a backbone. Sabaton's lead vocalist did some gnarly guest vocals in the absolutely amazing powerhouse of a chorus. This closing track right here is a symphonic power metal powerhouse of an anthem. This epic song gets a perfect 10/10 from me.

If you've listened to this album and you were wondering, yes, I am aware that this is a concept album. The storyline is a pretty typical and cliché one. A bunch of unholy demons and monsters, along with other things are attacking a land of make believe where peace and love reign. But as typical cliché as the song may be, it's actually put together quite nicely. It's quite thin, but it tells itself so well. Most thin storylines are shit at doing this, but not the one on this album. The lyrics are actually quite poetic at times. As cheesy as they are, they are written very nicely in their limits. Sure, there are other albums that do this as well, but not too many that are this cheesy and in this genre. No, not even Rhapsody of Fire is at this level of cheese (and no, I don't dislike them either).

This is an album that may take a while to be enjoyed for how good it is due to the thick layer of cheese that covers it up, but once you do, there's a great reward. You get to realize that power metal is actually getting some new bands that are actually both relevant. Most of the famous ones that are more recent are from bands that have been releasing music for over a decade. There is a new wave of power metal that is living among us and it generates some great music, something that a lot of power metal bands in the last decade sucked at. The mainstream may not care lots, but we have a scene and we're proud of it. This is innovation and if there are some that cannot grasp that, the rest of us are doing just fine with the absence (not that most metalheads are elitists). In that wave of innovation, this is one of the brightest pieces of gold that is findable, without the requirement of looking hard throughout the scene.