Band:	Armory
Album:	The Dawn Of Enlightenment
Style:	Power metal
Release date:	December 18, 2007
A review by:	Raiden

01. The Tempest
02. Faith In Steel
03. Riding The Cosmic Winds
04. Forever Triumphant
05. Heart Of Dreams
06. Warrior Forlorn
07. Forged In Dragon Flames
08. The Eyes Of Time
09. Mystic Star
10. The Dawn Of Enlightenment
11. Flight Of Icarus [Iron Maiden cover] [bonus]
12. Dr. Wily [bonus]

Style: Power Metal
Country: USA
Label: Self-Released
Length: 1:09:41
Recorded: 2007 (originally 2004)

Line-up:
Adam Kurland - Vocals
Chad Fisher - Guitars
Joe Kurland - Guitars
Thomas Preziosi - Bass
Tom Vieira - Drums
Peter Rutcho - Keyboards


More or less since I heard the terms "European Power Metal" and "US Power Metal" I've thought they were a bit misleading. I know why people use them, but it's a bit of a generalisation to me. Both Europe and the USA are large places! Surely it isn't the case that every single Power Metal band from each area plays the same type of music! Of course not, and Armory, a Power Metal band from Massachusetts, USA are an example of such a band.

I'll start by admitting that Armory is pretty good at what they do. They play their instruments well, and vocalist Adam Kurland has quite a powerful voice (a little bit like Kamelot's Roy Kahn, but much more "melodic", energetic and towering). Armory play, as you've probably gathered, a "European influenced" style of Power Metal. "The Dawn Of Enlightenment" is their first album. Well, to be exact it's a complete rerecording of their first (and only) album/demo. You often hear people refer to some newer Power Metal bands as "just another Power Metal band". In the case of Armory, you sometimes get that feeling too. It's not as such that they're complete clones of another well known band, it's just that their music isn't always that inspiring. Take their lyrics for example; they're at times overly cheesy, and even slightly cringe worthy. Take the song "Faith In Steel" - Freedom is calling. Fight! Forever we are defending the king and the crown with steel. Faith in steel. We hear enough of that sort of thing from Manowar! Thankfully the whole album isn't exactly in the same vein, but it's an unfortunate down point.

As I said, performance-wise The Dawn Of Enlightenment is pretty good. Some songs throughout trail off into solo-fests, but at least they're fairly well played. They are pretty frequent though. Those of you out there that like more straightforward solid Heavy Metal might be slightly disappointed as Armory play more of a melody laden, solo flooded type of music. Some of the tracks on the album are quite catchy in parts, but others aren't quite so strong and when you hear some fairly typical themes shouted out at you it can tend to spoil some songs ("Mystic Star" for example). It's not all bad though, and devoted Power Metal fans will I'm sure, go for it. I just wouldn't expect an album such as this to sway someone who had their doubts about this kind of music.

So what we have here are a pretty talented bunch of guys. There's technical drumming when necessary, skilful guitar playing (even though a bit over the top at times) and soaring soulful vocals. Its downfall is that it's a fairly "typical" cheesy kind of album and perhaps it tries too hard on the performance side of things. It's not bad, but I'll just say that dedicated Power Metal fans will like this album the most.