SpellBlast - Horns Of Silence review
Band: | SpellBlast |
Album: | Horns Of Silence |
Style: | Folk metal, Power metal |
Release date: | February 2007 |
A review by: | Baz Anderson |
01. In The Name Of Odin
02. Lost In The Forest
03. Losing Reality
04. Glory To The Gem
05. Goblins' Song
06. Legend Of The Ice Wolf
07. Sign Of The Unicorns
08. Resurrection
09. Knights Of Darkness
SpellBlast are a folk influenced power metal band hailing from Italy and formed in 1999, but only released their first demo "Ray Of Time" in 2004, which received quite a fair reception selling 500 copies. Now in early 2007 the band has signed to Metal Crusade Records and has now unleashed their first full-length album "Horns Of Silence" onto the world to show us what they are made of.
The album grabs our attention with the first track "In The Name Of Odin" with a flurry of double bass drumming in true power metal style and then the chorus shows the more folk-influenced side of the band, this formula stays true for pretty much the whole album. Damnagoras from Elvenking appears with his vocals for the first time on "Lost In The Forest" which fits in well with the bands music. Obvious comparisons can be made between the music of SpellBlast and Elvenking, both sporting the same style and flying the flag for Italy.
The longest song on the album "Glory To The Gem" at seven and a half minutes is one of the highlights of the album being followed by the most folk influenced song on the album "Goblins' Song". The album seems to get stronger towards the end especially with "Sign Of The Unicorns" which has to be the best song on this album; you cannot help but smile when it starts with such bombastic energy. The last two tracks are also highly enjoyable and leave the impression on you that you must listen to the album again once it has finished.
The main criticism I have for the album is that in some places it might be lacking that extra bit of power, those extra up-tempo double bass drums that could possibly have made it all that bit more enjoyable just aren't there. Of course this also means that when we are treated to some, it sounds much better and more powerful then if we were spoiled with high-tempo double bass and were used to hearing it.
To summarize, this album is a fairly solid power metal album with bits of folk in there in places and is an all round good, enjoyable album to listen to that has many highlights - "Sign Of The Unicorns" and "Knights Of Darkness" being the songs that shine most. This wont be last time we hear of SpellBlast, highly recommended to all Elvenking fans and also recommended for power/folk metal fans all around.
You can also hear a fair few tracks with the media player on the band's official website here, and the band's myspace site here.
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