Although as I said this year I wanted to have more structure on Metal Month, there are some albums I've reviewed that just don't fit into any of the sections I've presented so far, nor any future ones. But I'd like to post them anyway, so from time to time over the next remaining weeks I'll be featuring an album that is simply nothing more than a pure album review.
But always Metal, of course!
Here's the first one.
Alliance of the kings --- Ancient Bards --- 2010 (Limb Music)
About the same time as Anubis from Brazil were putting the finishing touches to their first album, a symphonic metal outfit thousands of miles away across the Atlantic were doing the same. The difference being that whereas the South American thrash band had been together since 1994, Ancient Bards only formed in 2006, and since then have had three albums, three parts of a trilogy they call the Black Crystal Sword Saga, of which this is the first part. The third, released this year, completes only part one, so this Italian synphonic metal band has obviously big plans in hand.
With a typical symphonic metal opening, dramatic, keyboard driven with big booming drums, the perhaps mundanely-named “Prelude” features singer Sara Squadrani relating the story behind the album. I'm not going to go into that here (see? I said I'd keep these reviews shorter!) but she does tell us that
”This is the story of the Black Crystal Sword” then things start to hot up as “The birth of evil” hits, with typically progressive/power keyboard runs and galloping drums. Sara is obviously a good singer too, and you can hear echoes of bands like Rhapsody, Stratovarius and others in here. There are great backing vocals, provided by Daniele Mazza, founder of the band, under the banner of “Barbarian choir”.
It certainly rocks along and Daniele handles keyboard duties while Claudio Pietronik and Fabio Balducci look after the guitars, all three meshing with the rhythm section of Allesando Carichini on drums and Martino Garattoni on bass to provide the perfect backdrop for Sara's powerful voice. It's derivative certainly, more power than symphonic metal to me, at least so far, then we're into “Four magic elements”, on which Garattoni gets to exercise his fingers in some fine bass runs and the guitars take on almost a celtic feel. Deep, heavy keys from Mazza add to the dramatic, elegant sense of the song, while “Only the brave” is much faster (much!), a real shredder of a thing with Mazza again bossing the keyboard lines while the lads go crazy on the frets. The clear vocal of Sara cuts through then and the song takes off. I really don't know what she's singing about but let's be honest: in these sort of albums the stories all take their inspiration from this or that fantasy novel, film or legend, and there's a general template. Someone evil is trying to stop someone good and the latter needs the Black Crystal Sword to defeat him. See? I could have written this.
But there's no doubting the power of the music, and it's gripping and entertaining, as long as you don't take it all too seriously. Nice instrumental break there just after the midpoint, where Daniele Mazza gets to show off his keyboard skills, as well as his “Barbarian choir”. It certainly trundles along like a runaway train, not too much time to catch your breath. A ballad would be nice, and I expect we'll get one before too long. For now though things keep fast and heavy with “Frozen mind”, and while the idea of having a female vocalist in this subgenre is interesting if not unique, and the “Barbarian choir” is a nice idea, I'm finding this pretty generic so far. Nothing is really standing out and most of the songs are played too fast for there to be any discernible hooks on which to hang a good idea. Rather nice piano solo there from Mazza, backed up with some dark symphonic keys, but I'd still class Ancient Bards as more a power than a symphonic metal band personally.
Very cinematic and operatic short interlude next as “Nightfall in an icy forest” showcases the Barbarian Choir at its best, but at just under two minutes it's way too short and takes us into “Lode al padre”, the only song on the album with an Italian title, though it's actually sung, like the rest of the songs, in English. It would also seem to be the ballad I've been waiting for, although it kicks up a little for the chorus. Nice soft keyswork from Mazza, acoustic style guitar from Balducci with a powerful vocal performance from Sara; one of the better tracks so far. More celtic stylings about this, then it breaks into a searing guitar solo as the tempo ramps up, Pietronik trying to outdo his axe partner in shred power, then the embarrassingly tritely-titled “Daltor the Dragonhunter” is one of the two longest tracks on the album, both falling just shy of the nine-minute mark.
It's pretty epic as you would expect, with a rather stunning vocal delivery from Sara, who proves she can sing almost unaccompanied as the band all but drops away in sections of the song. It starts well, but quickly descends into yet another get-there-as-quickly-as-possible effort, which for me cheapens a little what this band are about, or what they should be about. Sounds like Spanish guitar there in about the fourth minute, then it slows down into a dramatic almost march, stately and regal as Mazzo's keyboards take centre stage for a while. “Farewell my hero” is another dramatic, sweeping piece where this time Mazzo uses his keys as the sombre backdrop to a tale of courage and loss, while Pietronik and Balducci add the punch required, the rhythm section driving the whole thing. Above all this rises the voice of Sara like a demented thing; she puts in one of her best performances on this song.
The album comes to a close on “Faithful to destiny”, the longest track at just fifteen seconds short of nine minutes and it kind of reprises the general theme of the album for the first few minutes before Sara comes in with a vocal whose rhythm and cadences recall the lays of medieval minstrels, with the Barbarian Choir adding its weight to her voice. The somewhat celtic influence returns in the fourth minute, with the guitar putting me in mind too of Mike Oldfield on “Tubular Bells II”, then Mazzo lets loose with a barrage on the organ, powerful and dramatic and stirring, helped by single forceful drumbeats from Carichini before the whole thing kicks off into high gear for the finale.
TRACKLISTING
1. Prelude
2. The birth of evil
3. Four magic elements
4. Only the brave
5. Frozen mind
6. Nightfall in icy forest
7. Lode al padre
8. Daltor the dragonhunter
9. Farewell my hero
10. Faithful to destiny
For what it is, this is certainly a good album, but it's hard to get too excited about it. Sure, it's nice to see a band put enough thought into a storyline that they create a trilogy of albums that follow a set plot, and if you enjoyed this then it will probably set you up for the other two parts, plus no doubt more to come. I enjoyed it, but I'm not rushing out to buy the other albums. It's good, it's well-written and very well-played, but the problem is that you could say that about any power, progressive or symphonic metal band these days, and to stand out from the herd you have to I believe have something different. You need to be able to separate yourself from the hundreds or even thousands of bands who are all vying for a slice of the same pie, and for me there just isn't enough here to distinguish Ancient Bards from any of their fellow bands.
A good effort, certainly, but sadly these days it's no longer enough just to be good. And that's all this is: good, nothing more.