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 Post subject: Application to the Review Team
PostPosted: Sat Nov 05, 2016 11:04 am 
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Svartalfar

Joined: Mon May 06, 2013 4:46 pm
Posts: 19
Hi all people,

Been following the site since 2002 and I've seen that many albums have not been reviewed and I feel this is by the lack of reviewers so just wanted to ask the team if they will be willing to include one more to the team. My strong is Power Metal, Melodic Death but I'm not closed to any gender.

This is a couple of reviews for you to judge:

Nordic Union - Nordic Union

Fans of Melodic Hard Rock this is your luck day! Thanks to the fantasy (or maybe whim) of Frontiers Music president we can all now enjoy a bombastic combo formed by Erik Martenson (ECLIPSE’s main songwriter) and Ronnie Atkins (legendary vocalist of Pretty Maids). I suppose this is sometimes all about the commercial side of music, but we must admit that this Perugino president has good taste when joining musicians.

I believe Martenson is undoubtedly one of the guitar player-songwriter with more future in the Hard Rock scene and Ronnie Atkins is living his second golden youth (someone said Avantasia?) all at the same time. Along with former ECLIPSE drummer Magnus Ulfstedt at the drums, this three player band hasn’t missed the shot.

Songs are pretty similar to the successful Armageddonize that has gained great reviews all over the world, maybe a little bit softer but perfectly composed. Standing at the side of Pretty Maids, fans may find it too light (I include myself here) and Atkins sings the songs as he usually sing his ballads from his other band, which is not bad but you can find yourself missing a little bit of Metal here.

Songs are mid tempo with great riffs from Martenson, and even though he plays all guitars, bass and keyboards, which shows the great talent this young rocker has, I find myself thinking that in some songs he is just at his 85% of songwriting capability.

The albums starts with two killers as The War has Begun, and Hypocrisy, which in my humble opinion are the top tracks of the album. After that, the high level of the songs doesn’t decay (maybe just a little bit at the slow Ever Heartbeat) and they manage to keep it up after 11 songs.

Is this album perfect? I wouldn’t say so, my feelings are that you can’t maintain 11 mid tempo songs without delivering a masterpiece and the score doesn’t get higher mainly because of the lack of originality that starts hitting you after the 6th or 7th song.

Is this album a great piece of Melodic Hard Rock brought by two main genius of the scene? Definitely! If you like ECLIPSE and love the incredible voice of Atkins this is a piece of cake you can’t miss!

83/100


Borknagar - The Winter Thrice

Boom! 2016 here we go! This Progressive Black Metal geniuses are back with an extraordinary album.

I must admit that I’m not much into the Black Metal scene as I tend to miss the most extreme genres in metal, may it be Black Metal may it be ultra sweet pop metal. The equilibrium in my taste is for the mixing primarily.

Quite surprisingly, this is the first time I hear Borknagar, and holy man what a discovery is this Winter Thrice! Øystein Burn is a terrific songwriter and I can say without a shadow of doubt that we are into one of the best vocal work in the past years. Vortex, Vintersorg and Lazare play a game of mixing themselves up into wonderful vocal melodies that will take you up into the mountains and feel the smell of rain on the grass in a cold winter morning. Guitar work doesn’t stay behind and Brun and Ryland are able to blend some amazing riffs with folk essences that match perfectly with the provided atmosphere.

Probably core fans of Black Metal will find this album just too light, without enough harsh vocals on it, but again, its very difficult to have a 50/50 on clean and harsh vocals without sounding the typical metalcore band of “clean chorus and harsh verse”.

One thing has to be clear if you want to throw yourself into this wonderful journey.. this is not an easy album. We are talking of 8 songs of mostly around 6-7 min each with quite a number of breaks and mid tempo pieces. Needless is to say that if you manage to make the effort of sinking into it you won’t be disappointed.

As for the killer songs, all of them are on an incredible high level but the first half of the album is simply enormous. The Rhymes of the Mountain, Winter Thrice (single) and Panorama will be on the top songs of Progressive Black-Folk metal of this 2016 that has just began (and how!)

So, if you want to take an adventure through oaks, pines and birches and sit around a flaming fire this is your album.

Score 96/100


You can contact me at themetalpalantir@gmail.com if you wish more reviews from me for this site.

Keep it up people!!!


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