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Twilight Force: Tales of Ancient Prophecies

Melodic Power Metal

3.0/5.0

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Black Lodge Records
Words by Craig Hartranft,  22.05.2014

Spoiler alert, for those who despise power metal and those who don't. With their debut disc, Tales of Ancient Prophecies, Sweden's Twilight Force has everything, all the essential elements, that makes traditional symphonic power metal both cliche and outrageous.

Twilight Force: is that a ninja elf?

But, wait. This is not merely power metal. No, sir. Twilight Force gives you 'adventure' metal. Call it what you will, it's still power metal in all its bombastic glory. There are swarms of keyboards for orchestration and solos, a pummeling and galloping rhythm section, lyrical themes of magic and fantasy, choirs of vocals, abundant and bristling guitar solos, and over-the-top, and I mean over-the-top, lead vocals. While Tales of Ancient Prophecies may be familiar territory in the power metal genre, it's greatest weakness is vocalist Christian Eriksson.

Sorry dude, but you are off the rails. On most every song Hedgren starts off steady, but then, for some unknown reason, the pace of the song or what, he keeps getting higher, notably on the chorus, and his voice goes to shit. It gets this crazy screaming screech. After hearing this several times, I didn't know whether to grimace in pain or laugh out loud. I did, however, have to stop listening many times. After a while, Eriksson began to sound like Edguy's Tobias Sammet with a baseball wrapped in barbed wire shoved up his ass being chased by charging rhino. (They can run pretty fast you know.)

Add the vocals to the simple bombastic outrageousness of Twilight Force's power metal, and you know why some people want to say power metal sucks ass. (I like it most times.) But, musically, while still derivative, Twilight Force does the genre justice. They just need to make improvements, and find something to separate them everybody else. Call Twilight Force a mash up of Rhapsody of Fire, Dragonforce, and maybe some Blind Guardian. Then put in a call for a new vocalist.

Twilight Force - The Power of the Ancient Force (Lyric Video)

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

With the exception of some vocal problems, with Tales of Ancient Prophecies, Twilight Force does the power metal genre justice, even if it is cliche and derivative.

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