Falconer - Chapters From A Vale Forlorn - guest review
Falconer - Chapters From A Vale Forlorn - guest review
Tracklist
01. Decadence Of Dignity02. Enter The Glade
03. Lament Of A Minstrel
04. For Life And Liberty
05. We Sold Our Homesteads
06. The Clarion Call
07. Portals Of Light
08. Stand In Veneration
09. Busted To The Floor
10. En Kungens Man [bonus]
Guest review by
Bas August 06, 2006
The weak point of this album though, is the bad production; this especially shows on the beautiful ballad "Portals Of Light" of which I'm sure it would sound twice as good with the production a song like this deserves. Their lyrics are about the hardships of medieval times and the greed of the church, however a lot of the passages also remind of modern life. The lyrics are presented in the form of a few neat metaphors "If you look hard you'll see me in the sky, showing you the light that now is for sale. Don't you hesitate, but buy yourself a Grail."
This is clearly one of those CD's which you can listen to over and over again. The songs are rich in variation, ranging from slow ballads, to fast and very catchy songs and tracks with very folkish passages. Despite the use of a drum machine even the drumming has quite some variation. When listening to this CD you will almost always find something new, a strange guitar note you didn't notice before, a nice flute tone in the background accompanying the singing, a change of time signature, anything. This album is so full of such things that listening to it will never get boring.
All in all what we have here is a catchy power metal band with good lyrics, not at all cheesy, some folk influences and a very playful attitude. Definitely a band I would recommend not only to all fans of power metal but also to fans of folk metal or traditional metal; actually this is a band I would recommend to just about anyone.
Favourite tracks: Enter The Glade, The Clarion Call, Portals Of Light
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 9 |
| Songwriting: | 10 |
| Originality: | 10 |
| Production: | 8 |
Written by Bas | August 06, 2006
Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
Comments
Comments:
10
Visited by
102 users
| Revenant
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 Posts: 13427 |
Posts: 13427
This might be the third good Power Metal band you introduced me to. Must check them out. 
---- SLUDGE. DOOM. DEATH. Wait, what?  "The reason I'm running for president is because I can't be Bruce Springsteen." - Barack Obama
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 Posts: 1937 |
Posts: 1937
Meh, I am not good at commenting whatsoever ... I will just say that this is one very well written review, and, I agree with it ^^ Chapters is one album one can listen over and over.
---- -Lily
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| Devil Child
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Posts: 948  |
Posts: 948
Yeah, you are right, Mathias reminds me of an medieval bard aswell. Great review! It's a great album.
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 Posts: 3523 |
Posts: 3523
This album always seemed like a decent sequel to their debut, but it just never measured up for me. I don't feel the production is terrible, I just feel the songwriting started to go in a direction that would eventually lead to the (IMO) uninteresting sounds of their 3rd and 4th albums. Outside of the first two tracks on this album, I really don't listen to it much. The ballad and the final track with its prog-rock keyboards just do not work for me at all. They still deserve a high rating because their sound is so unique, but I think I'd go for somewhere around 8 on this disc. And regarding the drum machine comments, I do know a drum machine was used on the demo (as it says on their website), but as far as I know, Larsson did the drumming not only on this album, but on the debut as well.
---- "After silence that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." - Aldous Huxley
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| Arcaliz666
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 Posts: 1464 |
Posts: 1464
Great album, and I hate Power Metal! However the genius of songs such as Decadence Of Dignity is too obvious to be ignored.
---- You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets. You do it at home. The rest is bullshit and you know it ~ Mean Streets
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 Posts: 64382 |
Posts: 64382
Lol medieval bard, in some way I agree he has unique things into his voice and all, I don't know what but actually singer is why well singers affects in the videos why I even paid attention to this one
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"  I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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