Kaledon - Legend Of The Forgotten Reign - Chapter 4 - Twilight Of The Gods
Universal Metal Productions
Epic Melodic Speed / Power Metal
11 songs (52'09)
Release year: 2006
Kaledon, Universal Metal Productions
Reviewed by Marty
Legend Of The Forgotten Reign Chapter 4 - Twilight Of The Gods signifies a return to the mythical land of Kaledon for the latest chapter in guitarist/mastermind Alex Mele's ongoing epic about the battle between two heirs to the throne of England during the Kaledon era of the 1300s. I've been watching this band progress since the first album (Chapter 1) which showed very little promise, aside from a solid storyline, with it's typical epic fantasy fuelled speedy power metal. As subsequent albums in the series were released, I could see improvements in just about all aspects of this band. The production was much better as were the songs in general but the biggest improvement was with the vocals of Claudio Conti. Strong improvements overall were very evident with Chapter 2 of the epic saga and it all really came together with Chapter 3 - The Way Of The Light that was released last year. With that album, Claudio finally delivered a vocal performance that showed the kind of strength, power and passion that was needed for the world to really start taking notice of this band and to take them seriously. Playing the sort of speedy, symphonic and epic Rhapsody-style power metal really pigeon-holes a band and unless they offer something really special, are not going to be able to compete with the heavy weights in the genre. With Legend Of The Forgetten Reign Chapter 4 - Twilight Of The Gods, Kaledon is finally hitting their stride and if the whole master plan of the six part story is to culminate the whole story with their best album ever for Chapter 6, then they are right on track and getting better with each album of the series. This new album also sees the debut for the band's new label, Universal Metal Production based in the U.S.

Along with the speedy and melodic epic power metal that's such a staple of Kaledon's sound, there's a newfound sense of melodic structure as far as introducing more memorable melody lines and melodic hooks than ever before. The overall sound, although still very epic, seems a little more simplified with everything in it's proper place. The more frequent use of blasting and speedy synth leads has taken a page from the school of band's like Dragonforce and Power Quest; this time, opting to minimizing the symphonic effects emulating from the keyboards on past albums. Tracks like Holy Water, War Plans, Clash Of The Titans and Eyes Of Fire are prime examples of the speedy melodic power metal of Kaledon's sound. The choruses have that huge Rhapsody-like quality to them along with speedy muted guitar riffs stuttering over galloping double bass fills. Also very noticeable with these tracks (and on the rest of the album) is an increased sense of how to properly use guitar harmonies and melodic fills to really drive the overall melody of the song. With tracks like Hell On Earth and Into The Fog, Kaledon infuses more dynamics into their sound with keyboard orchestration, sudden speedy tempo changes and extended instrumental segments especially with Into The Fog. One of the better tracks on the album, this one is a real tour-de-force and mixes dramatic passages containing some great harmonized guitar arpeggios and keyboard accents, warm vocal layering effects and the trademark speediness for the chorus sections. A couple of power ballads are featured on this album with Goodbye My Friend using Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni's Adagio in G-Minor (Also used on Yngwie Malmsteen's Icarus' Dream Suite Op IV on his Rising Force album) as the backing melody lines. Claudio's voice just soars on this track and his voice combined with the classic melodies of Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni's classic opus works very well. The Fury sees Claudio upping the ante even more to deliver a very powerful and emotional vocal with lots of doubling and layering on his voice.

For Chapter 3 - The Way Of The Light, the band recruiting drummer Jorg Michael (Stratovarius) to play drums and his killer and powerful double-bass style really propelled the sound of the whole album. With Chapter 4 - Twilight Of The Gods drummer David Folchitto has returned and it seems his presence during some of the sessions for Chapter 3 with Jorg Michael has had a positive effect on him as his playing is amazing, powerful and some of the best sounding drum work yet on any Kaledon album.

As I stated earlier, there's a newfound sense of more simplified song arrangements with Chapter 4 and this is reflected in the stronger melodic hooks and melody lines. Production-wise, this is easily the best sounding Kaledon album yet. With a killer speedy sound, soaring vocals and more memorable moments with each and every track, Kaledon has gone to great lengths to continuously show improvements over previous albums. Legend Of The Forgotten Reign Chapter 4 - Twilight Of The Gods is their best album yet and with Rhapsody moving away from the speedy power metal and getting even more epic and dramatic, Kaledon is slowly moving in to fill the void and become one of the premier Italian power/speed metal outfits. This style of metal was in it's prime on the late 90's or early 2000's with many of the band's of that era moving away from that basic sound. Conversely, Kaledon embraces that era and continues to champion the cause.

Killing Songs :
Holy Water, Clash Of The Titans, Into The Fog, Eyes Of Fire and The Fury
Marty quoted 84 / 100
Other albums by Kaledon that we have reviewed:
Kaledon - Antillius: The King Of Light reviewed by Joel and quoted 82 / 100
Kaledon - Legend Of The Forgotten Reign Chapter 5 - A New Era Begins reviewed by Marty and quoted 78 / 100
Kaledon - Legend Of The Forgotten Reign Chapter 3 - The Way Of The Light reviewed by Marty and quoted 80 / 100
Kaledon - Legend Of The Forgotten Reign Chapter 2 - The King's Rescue reviewed by Marty and quoted 70 / 100
Kaledon - Legend Of The Forgotten Reign Chapter 1 - The Destruction reviewed by Marty and quoted 60 / 100
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