CRIMSON SHADOWS
Imagine power metal. Now imagine power metal mixed with melodic death metal. That's the new album from Crimson Shadows. A perfect blend of rhythm guitar with the drums; a not so perfect blend of solo guitar and clean vocals with the rest of the overall sound. I’m personally a big fan of mixes when they are well done. Unfortunately, this perfect blend of genres is not present - at least as a constant motion throughout the album. ‘Heroes Among Us’, the track that names the album, is one of the few exceptions. Balanced, well structured, not saturating. Another good example of this is ‘Maiden Call’.
As diving throughout the album, you can actually feel them delivering what they are supposed to (or what you wished they did), until you reach the last minute and a half of every song and you lose focus - too many never-ending epic solos and a generic power/heavy metal clean vocals. It’s sad to see a band that would be so great as a melodic death metal band drowning into a mediocre epic/power metal sound when you’re reaching the “oh this is actually good” point.
Crimson Shadows should focus more on their main singer, who is more than capable of reaching a vast spectrum of pitches, instead of focusing so much on the epic side of the sound, which lacks vision and personality. Taking into consideration that Crimson Shadows is a very recent band, I can only say that there is a lot of space to grow and potential to be great one day; there is only a desperate need of doing some magic to the epic part of it and truly make it Epic.
As diving throughout the album, you can actually feel them delivering what they are supposed to (or what you wished they did), until you reach the last minute and a half of every song and you lose focus - too many never-ending epic solos and a generic power/heavy metal clean vocals. It’s sad to see a band that would be so great as a melodic death metal band drowning into a mediocre epic/power metal sound when you’re reaching the “oh this is actually good” point.
Crimson Shadows should focus more on their main singer, who is more than capable of reaching a vast spectrum of pitches, instead of focusing so much on the epic side of the sound, which lacks vision and personality. Taking into consideration that Crimson Shadows is a very recent band, I can only say that there is a lot of space to grow and potential to be great one day; there is only a desperate need of doing some magic to the epic part of it and truly make it Epic.
LABEL:
FORMAT:
Napalm Records
Album
KINGS AMONG MEN
Review by Salomé Sequeira
RUNNING TIME:
50:03
RELEASE DATE:
1st Sept 2014
TRACK LISTING
1) March of Victory
2) Rise to Power
3) Heroes Among Us
4) A Gathering of Kings
5) Maidens Call
6) Braving the Storm
7) On the Eve of Battle
8) Freedom and Salvation
9) Dawn of Vengeance
10) Moonlit Skies and Bloody Ties
2) Rise to Power
3) Heroes Among Us
4) A Gathering of Kings
5) Maidens Call
6) Braving the Storm
7) On the Eve of Battle
8) Freedom and Salvation
9) Dawn of Vengeance
10) Moonlit Skies and Bloody Ties
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:
Canada
"A perfect blend of rhythm guitar with the drums; a not so perfect blend of solo guitar and clean vocals with the rest of the overall sound."
