Take a big, sparkling clean pan, throw in three parts Dragonforce, two parts Helloween, a pinch of Hammerfall and sprinkle with finely ground Sonata Arctica, melt over a low heat and get out the fondue forks... it's over the top melodic, fantasy Power Metal time, folks.
Now although I'm hardly the biggest fan of this style, I am not entirely lactose intolerant: Keeper Of The Seven Keys has a snug corner of my heart forever, I have the first two Hammerfall albums and back when they were a band not a video game difficulty level I had a lot of time for Dragonforce as a fun night out. I also own more Sonata Arctica albums than any sane person could (er... four!)
So, fresh out of the Power Metal closet, what have I got?
Where do you start with this sort of music? It's all very Marmite, isn't it (sorry about the mixed food metaphors. There's more to come.)
I guess if you're an uber fan of those bands above and melodic fantasy power metal in general you probably might as well stop here and go out and buy it as, on its own merits, they fit snugly and proudly within that pantheon.
Emerald Sun are very much a solid unit rather than a single virtuoso's ego trip and their groupies which is very much a plus for me. It's also slickly constructed and produced, it has a nice, full, galloping drum sound all the way through. The guitars whilst hardly upfront low end riff machines are not forcibly drowned by the keyboard player and the rather fine vocals actually mostly stop shy of vice-crushed wails and have a bit of grit in them as well as being more than capable of holding a tune.
Power metal does attract talent and these guys are musicians, no question and they'd look good on any like minded bill. They've been around since 1998 and this is their second or third album (depending on who you listen to). They know their stuff and they know their way around a song: Big guitar melody hooks, classic Helloween style rising choruses and actually an individuality to each track, a personality polished to sheen. Many bands could learn from that.
But what about the songs themselves? What about the sound?
'We Won't Fall' is a fun, spritely start. So Helloween meets Hammerfall it's like wading through candy floss and I get a big old sugar rush. It makes me grin and chuckle along with it rather than at it. The sky is brighter, my mood lifted. Good clean fun.
The follow up 'Theatre Of Pain' is a theatrical affair (ahem), complete with voice over and its red velvet drapery tipps gingerly over the bubbling fondue. But, hey, it's kinda fun so no foul.
I start to flag 'Where Angels Fly' though. Then 'Regeneration' is a little interlude leading to 'Starchild' which tries for a bit of social allegory amidst the sci-fi (I think) but it mostly gets bundled off stage left by the bouncy, light metal melody and the frantic fretwork.
I honestly do want to like this stuff, I don't want to be the always serious, grim, doomhead or black metal fan sneering coldly at my shoes. I want elves and aliens and angels and heroes and villains and queens and princesses in my musical library (but no gnomes or hobbits please). I want ballads and love songs and brain candy now and then just like I enjoy a mug of hot chocolate. It's all part of music.
But when the sugar rots the emotional teeth of the song or you've got shellshock from all the bombast it doesn't help you take it seriously.
For example, the clearly sung lyrics on tracks like 'Starchild' are every bit as cliched and soft as you could fear. Elsewhere it's a world where desire rhymes with fire and there's probably a hill out there somewhere with some bloke on top waving a sword around in a storm. 'Speak Of The Devil' tries to be a bit more downbeat but really is about as sinister as being hugged by that furry thing from the soup adverts.
By the time we get to 'Planet Metal' where metalheads can run free in a paradise of something or other (including squeaky alien voices complaining about rubbish spaceships... I am not making this up, honest!), I do wonder if the band themselves have given up being serious too.
But then to prove they are, they mug you with a twelve minute epic in 'Fantasmagoria' that after three leaves my mind fleeing to imaginary times whilst my body is strapped to the chair like the end of the film Brazil. I think I really have reached my limits here.
However the final track is a moment of bizarre genius that allows me to forgive even that assault. It's a cover of the Bonnie Tyler 80s pop/rock/desperate housewife's sexual fantasy musing classic 'Holding Out For A Hero'. As the guys' English seems spot on I can only assume they are perfectly secure in their masculinity and have done this with a big, knowing grin, and if so honestly all power (metal) to them for doing so.
At the end of four and a bit minutes you have just heard one of the most gloriously camp and entertaining covers ever. I'm smiling like a fool and can't wait for some other enterprising male band to copy it live (though I doubt Manowar or any trve kvlt BM band will be first up).
Anyway, the Emerald Sun guys are apparently holding out for a hero until the end of the night and he's got to be tall and he's got to be strong and he's got to be larger than life. So form an orderly queue here please.
Sorry if the review seems overly harsh; I feel like I've just kicked a kitten and I'd honestly rather listen to this any day than another 'ultra brootal ulta gutteral ultra peurile slamming' pile of goregrind. But apart from the cover version I think you'll have to be a pretty hardcore fantasy power metal fan to finish this off repeatedly. If you are, then ignore me and dive in. Seriously. I doubt you'll regret it.
But now please, pretty please (with sugar on top) show me to the Black Metal review pile......?
http://www.myspace.com/emeraldsunband
