Band:	Broken Dagger
Album:	Chain Of Command
Style:	Power metal
Release date:	January 30, 2007
A review by:	Jeff

01. An Unwanted Child
02. The Black Lotus
03. Rogaar Beware
04. Strory Of A Wicked Mind
05. He Will Die
06. Fire Within
07. Royal Deathlist
08. Vicious Light
09. The End Of Hope
10. E.B.E.N. [first press bonus]

After two demos, the Swedish dudes of Broken Dagger finally release their first album, "Chain Of Command". I remember in 2004, when I wrote the review of their second demo "Madness Approaching", it was a good surprise and I was expecting a lot of good things for this promising combo. Now that I have their first album in my hand, I can tell you that we have good things again but it's not so perfect too...

"Chain Of Command" still uses the first recipe of the first demos. Broken Dagger still plays a mix of Power/Speed Metal with progressive sonorities and we even have some classical touches with violins and cellos now. The songs aren't linear there are a lot of variations but however they're all really homogenous and you'll not have any breaks from the beginning to the end. Plus, even if I can't talk about genius music, I have to say that the music of Broken Dagger is good and a bit original. This is not a classic Power album, the riffs are melodic but heavy and thrashy and the melodies don't sound like some "happy flower" European Power. "Chain Of Command" can be dark and violent too, it was already the case of the Demo and the band didn't change this good thing.

The main problem of the release, at least for me, comes from the voice of Niklas Olausson. No, Niklas is not a bad singer and one cannot really say that he is out of tune or something like that, but I don't know, I don't like a lot his way to sing the lyrics of the album. It's a bit too theatrical or something like that, a bit "too much". Also, I was expecting a really better production than on the demo, but unfortunately the mixing is not good and the sound of the guitars is a bit crappy? Too bad because the songs are good but those problems doesn't help a lot the album.

In the end, "Chain Of Command" is an average release, full of good ideas and full of good songs really but with some bad things too unfortunately. It's not perfect too, and I regret the really average production. It's a bit sad for Broken Dagger, they're a good band but I hope that they will be able to release something better in the future. We're not so far away of the "good" album, with some additional work and some rectifications, it should be ok.