Tales of Ancient Prophecies

Alright, here is the deal. Take a vocalist that can sing better than 88% of the other power metal vocalists, sparkle some symphonic elements, add some world-class songwriting and put this mixture in the period when most of the European power metal legends are just the shadow of their former selves or are hibernating and currently the most popular bands representing the scene are the horribly cheesy and unlistenable DragonForce and the kings of entry tier metal, Sabaton and Powerwolf. If the stars aligned correctly and you followed these steps then now you have Twilight Force.

I mean no hate towards the aforementioned bands (hell, I like Powerwolf and Sabaton can be directly connected to this album), but it was evident that sooner or later we will get something much greater. This blessing came in the form of a small Sweedish band singing about the wisdom of dragons. Before I get into specifics there are a couple of things everybody should be aware of. Yes, the band plays symphonic power metal. No, not the Nightwish kind of silliness, it's more like the tasteful, epic style of Rhapsody. The other thing you should probably know is that Christian Eriksson is hitting notes so high that it might not be suitable for wimps that can't handle the sheer power of such vocals.

You don't even have to go any further than the first track to see what the band is all about. The triumphant riffing starts off the album, but there is the synth to accompany it too. As soon as you hear the first line "A new dawn is rising again" it becomes obvious that while keyboards make up a good portion of their sound, the record is mostly driven by the vocals. Throughout the entire record, there is not a single moment where Eriksson isn't putting in the maximum effort. This makes it sound like they "really mean it" and every chorus, verse, and bridge is impactful. The Power of the Ancient Force is pretty much the proof of the superb songwriting. It starts with the slow keyboard part which quickly translates into a wonderful crowd-sing-along type of chorus. Needless to say that the guitars are overshadowed by the massive sound of the keyboards for the most parts, but they always manage to make some space for it to shine on its own.

The record doesn't lack interlude tracks either. We got 3 of these if we aren't counting Sword of Magic Steel. One of these is your usual instrumental track, but the other two are interesting to say at least. The Summoning is a narrative tool just like In the Mighty Hall of the Fire King and they both have some incredibly cheesy spoken-word lines. Not only are the "lyrics" cliché, but the way they are spoken is also hilarious. While I'm at it I might as well talk about Sword of Magic Steel. While it's not even an actual metal song, it is so fucking great. It sounds just like it was taken from the "big book of bard songs from cliché fantasy worlds", but it sounds good with its forced accent and the silly attitude that it has.

From the looks of it, the band is obsessed with 3 things: Dragons, Twilight and making the vocalist hit notes so high that glasses shatter. For example, both Twilight Horizon and Fall of the Eternal Winter have a couple of notes that are so high that even god damn Michael Kiske would be jealous of them. It's pretty easy to see the influences that the band had. Rhapsody is the first band to come to mind, but dare I say that they executed the formula better than the Italian legends ever did? It also has the quirkiness of Gloryhammer, but I'm not sure if it's fair to call a band an influence when both of them were formed around the same time. While they are very different from each other, Made of Steel reminds me of Glory to the Brave from the other Sweedish legend, Hammerfall.

Overall this release was exactly what we needed in the European power metal scene. It stands as one of the brightest diamonds of the last decade thanks to the endless amount of replayability. Sadly this can't be said about the follow-up...

The highlights of the album are Twilight Horizon, Enchanted Dragon of Wisdom and Sword of Magic Steel.