Forbidden Seed - On Blackest Wings, Shadow Of The Crow Pt. 1 (Steel Gallery Records)
A concept album based around the Comic Book/Film series The Crow, On Blackest Wings, Shadow Of The Crow Pt. 1 is the Thessaloniki bands third full length album and they have thrown everything but the kitchen sink at it making for a cinematic, theatrical offing with plenty of special guests joining the core four piece of creative mind Constantin Maris who is the bands vocalist and shares guitars with George Marikas with Nik Danielos (bass) and Kostas Matis (drums). The most high profile guest is Wardrum's Kostas Vreto who not only adds guitars, but also the sweeping orchestrations that he wrote along with Sakos Bandis of Horizon's End/Hail Spirit Noir. Vreto also mixes, masters and co-produces the album with Constantin.
Every song here features a full orchestral backing making the bands style of heavy power metal sound even more epic. The main influence here is Iced Earth, a band revered in Greece, but in recent times have really become a bit of a joke due to the guitarists political beliefs (and the treason) however Forbidden Seed sound so much like them you'd actually feel like this could be an IE record. The albums feels like classic opuses like Burnt Offerings or The Dark Saga, with the conceptual elements fusing well with the metallic ones and while it's heavy power metal the band mainly stay within, there's thrash, death, black and numerous other influences too. At 16 tracks it's a weighty record but one that's a real pleasure to listen to if you're a fan of bands such as Iced Earth, Savatage and Nevermore.
With Angelos Gerogiannis' piano adding the beauty to a couple of the balladry tracks, the incredible Crown is excellent. Constantin's vocals are incredibly similar to Matt Barlow's, the same timbre, power and range, used to dizzying effect on tracks such as I Am. Ruby Bouzoti adds her voice to Beyond The Doors Of Sleep for an added elements of theatricality. On Blackest Wings, Shadow Of The Crow Pt. 1 will give you that new Iced Earth record you need without the need to storm the Capitol Building. 8/10
Smith & Swanson - Smith & Swanson (No Remorse Records)
In recent times this kind of Sabbath riffage will often be reviewed by my two American colleagues, but this time I thought I'd indulge in some low sling heavy riffs, full of distortion and reverb. Smith & Swanson, are vocalist Phil Swanson and multi-instrumentalist Tim Schmidt, known for bands such as Thronehammer and Atlantean Kodex, these two big, bearded, heavily tattooed dudes crank out some classic Sabbathian riffs fused with early Judas Priest power, especially in Phil's vocals and the grooving Refuse.
Manic Sinners - King Of The Badlands (Frontiers Music Srl) [Matt Bladen]
Manic Sinners are a Romanian band who are the first band from that country to be signed to Frontiers, and you can hear immediately why Frontiers would snap them up and pair them with Alessandro Del Vecchio for the mix of this powerful, melodic rock record. Built around drummer/keyboardist Adrian Igrisan, who is a icon in his native country, he's the driving force on King Of The Badlands bringing those big percussive boosts to rockers like Play To Lose, melodic rockers Carousel and synth filled ballads like Anastasia.
Now Igrisan plays drums, synths, bass and guitars, as Toni Dijmarescu takes electric guitars and bass (he gets to show off on the instrumentals), the duo are joined by the soulful vocals of Ovidiu Anton making for a decent if unspectacular melodic rock release. There's enough here to keep you interested but much of it has been done by other bands equally as well, still I believe it's a debut so you can hear the talent on offer, so there will be more to come in the future I'm sure and it gets the band a wider audience than before. 6/10
In recent times this kind of Sabbath riffage will often be reviewed by my two American colleagues, but this time I thought I'd indulge in some low sling heavy riffs, full of distortion and reverb. Smith & Swanson, are vocalist Phil Swanson and multi-instrumentalist Tim Schmidt, known for bands such as Thronehammer and Atlantean Kodex, these two big, bearded, heavily tattooed dudes crank out some classic Sabbathian riffs fused with early Judas Priest power, especially in Phil's vocals and the grooving Refuse.
Now Smith & Swanson doesn't do anything new musically, borrowing heavily from both the traditional metal and doom metal scenes without too much progression, but sometimes though that doesn't matter as you can easily grab you drug of choice and crank up the volume on tracks such as No Colours, the BLS flavoured Like Glass and the heavy riffing Bastard (Lemmy anyone?). It's not all Priest/Sabbath as there is some Dio coming through on Worms and on Refuse as well which has that strutting beat ripped right out of the 80's metal scene, when you hear it you'll know what I mean.
Though this has some big doom elements, it's much more akin to Epic Doom bringing classic metal melodies though clean vocals and shorter run times than a lot of Sabbath worship. World changing? No. Enjoyable? Hell yes! 7/10
Chronomancy - Shadows In Atlantis (Fighter Records)
The second album from Greek epic metal band Chronomancy, has yet more cinematic elements than ever before, taking as much from bands like Blind Guardian as it does Hans Zimmer, Shadows In Atlantis is an album based on Greek myths and legends and it is the first album since 2018's line up changes and their debut on Fighter Records. You get the feeling this is sort of album that Chronomancy have been striving for and from the first track Rebirth you can hear that the scope on this album is much broader. Rebirth features some traditional Balkan flute/recorder from their Northern Greek heritage to set the tone.
The big bass drum hits from Kyriakos Tsakalidis gets the folk sounds going, before the driving power metal comes galloping in, Dance Of The Vampires and Pilgrims In A Foreign Land both stick with that power metal template of bands such as Falconer. Chris A.D. Paschalidis's voice is powerful and has a broad range, crooning on tracks such as The Voyager but growling on songs such as Seven Deadly Kins. Musically they have a darker edge to their music, the guitar playing of Tyrtaeus Kamarinos and Yiangos Sourbis is melodic but also has a nastiness to it, pinned down by Thanos “Somber” Dogranlis rumbling basslines.
This mixture of melodic and heaviness both feature on The Hunting Song. This track and Magnum Opus features extensive use of Mary Sypoula's keyboards with some major orchestrations as well, Legions Of Mist though has the most. Shadows In Atlantis is a symphonic power metal with a cinematic flourish and is Chronomancy establishing their sound to a wider audience. 7/10