Artist: Dark Illusion
Title: Where The Eagles Fly
Type: Album
Label: Battlefield Records

Ok, there’s some good news and some bad news here. What do you want first? The good news? Righty-ho. Dark Illusion, a Swedish band, feature the pipes of one Mr Tomas Vikstrom, he of Candlemass (Chapter VI). The bad news? This is power metal. I know, I know, that’s not always bad news – I’ve been a fan of some Power metal for some time – and hey, you can’t make a pizza without cheese, right?

…but damn, this is less cheesy and rather more made entirely out of cheese. With a side order of cheese, smothered in a cheese sauce. Getting the picture yet? This is an album that sounds like a Hammerfall tribute band covering Europe while dressed as the village people. Yes, it might be seen as churlish to deny the appeal of soaring vocals and rousing guitar melodies such as on the fist-pumping (take that as you will) “Dark Journey”. If you approach this more as an anethmic rock album, it works rather better than as a heavy metal platter. Of course, you would expect Vikstrom to deliver a flawless vocal performance, which he does, and you would expect the guitar work to be effective though derivative. In these respects, “Where the Eagles Fly” delivers the goods. It’s called “Where the Eagles Fly”, for God’s sake – what are you expecting, brutal death metal ? No, this is the sole preserve of the Unicorn T-shirt wearing German euro-metal fan.

I’ve tried everything to get into this. I’ve grown a handlebar moustache and worn a faded denim waistcoat with a Blind Guardian back patch. I’ve re-named myself Hans and started drinking mead. Hell, I even listened to it playing Dragonage: Origins and waving a plastic sword about. I dressed my kids as dwarves and encouraged them to battle goblins. Nothing worked. Even my wife took the piss out of this when she heard it on the stereo – and she likes Celine Dion, for Christ’s sake. Oh, and “Epic” (closing track) turned out not to be a novelty cover of the Faith No More rap-em-up. Bummer.

http://www.darkillusion.se
http://www.myspace.com/darkillusionswe

Chris Davison

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