Gloryhammer are not for the faint of heart. This isn’t because their music is intensely heavy or anything, but because they sing tales of legendary and epic proportions about the saviour of the intergalactic empire, Angus McFife. For those unfamiliar with the band, it is the brainchild of Alestorm’s insane genius Christopher Bowes so naturally you know what to expect in some form with the musical stylings, but enough rambling, let us prepare to go to the distant future of 1992 and brave the rise of the chaos wizards.
This is definitely a symphonic power metal rock opera concept album and the follow on to the first Gloryhammer release. With its story set in a parallel galaxy where towns and cities in Scotland are kingdoms, the lyrical content and story is nothing short of entertaining and attention grabbing. Swiss vocalist Thomas Winkler’s story telling through some real impressive and dramatic power metal vocals which range from the more melodic Hammerfall styled to the full on dramatic power of Manowar* (note: nothing is as full on dramatic as Manowar, but that’s the best description I could give you here!) and the keyboard and synth wizardry of Christopher Bowes creates a huge sonic backdrop which ties it all together and adds so much to each track, giving the perfect backdrop for the pretty standard power metal underneath it.
It has all the staple go-to checks for power metal too – catchy melodic hooks, multi-layered vocal choruses to give that big effect, galloping riffs and bass-lines and plenty of extravagant and surreal themes to the songs. “Rise Of The Chaos Wizards”, “Legend Of The Astral Hammer” and “Universe On Fire” are stand out musical moments which display these ‘checks’ brilliantly and Universe On Fire really stands out as possibly the best moment of the album. Though with all these good points, it does suffer the curse which befalls Power Metal a lot of the time in how when it works, it’s great but when it doesn’t quite work its either dreadful or just generic sounding and a lot of the album does sound like bog standard European Power Metal with a lot more emphasis on synths than riffs.
Still, for the bright moments and usual run of the mill sounds, it’s an entertaining album and the storytelling does come across brilliantly. It’s easy to follow, not too convoluted and doesn’t make you wonder what happens, it lays it all out for you with a highly energetic and entertaining symphonic backdrop. It’s worth a listen if you like the cheesier side of metal, but those who would rather die than raise their hammers to some epic tales of heroic deeds are best avoiding it. In all, a fun album.
(6.5/10 Fraggle)
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