I really liked this album. It’s full of catchy, well-written and well-executed music in a genre that can be quite hard to pull off without seeming a bit lame. Eregion’s Age of Heroes is a beer-swilling, oi-chanting journey through the spheres of fantasy fiction, telling stories of warriors on great beasts doing heroic things and, as I said, I really liked this album. But the truth is I wanted to love it but because of… you know what? We’ll get there, let’s just take a closer look first.
The album opens up with Sacred Woods, a short instrumental that sets the scene with acoustic instruments and a Celtic vibe. It’s done as well as any of this style of music and even though I’ve definitely heard better acoustic guitar tones, the track does set the emotional scene quite well by creating a kind of ‘army prepares for battle’ feeling. Then it’s onto Wings of Eagle for a fast-paced, Iron Maiden-style riff-fest. Good melody and vocal delivery make for an easy to lock onto groove which culminates in the beer-hall chant chorus.
online pharmacy order aciphex online best drugstore for you
I get the feeling this band would be pretty damn good live. From there we head into Jotunheim. Its bass riff heads into a marching beat which then goes to a catchy chorus before heading off into some nice harmony guitar riffs followed by a well-played solo into a modulation for the last chorus, which I think was a nice touch.
The Stolen Hammer was next out of my speakers and its tense-feeling intro played with clean guitars, some nice violin and female vocals are quite evocative. It then leaves the Romani flavour behind and heads into a cool, bouncy riff that does make one tend to want to move one’s head in time. The call and response vocals create a cool vibe for this song. Ascalon (Siege and Demise) is up next with its lo-fi intro which heads into a Judas Priest kind of verse. The middle 8 is quite nice with its middle-eastern kind of vibe and even the slightly out of tune acoustic guitars in the outro didn’t worry me too much…initially anyway. Hands of Aesir is next with its Oi! Oi! chant and it’s tom drum-filled riff. It has call and response vocals and an Iron Maiden-type feel but the solo is only OK and it’s here that the album just starts to fray at the edges a little.
online pharmacy order zovirax online best drugstore for you
Then it’s onto Balder’s Bane and its synth pad and acoustic intro head into a nice violin solo but then those out of tune acoustic guitars are back. Hermod the Brave is a fast, choppy sprinter and had the only lyrics I could actually understand and an almost punk-feeling outro. I Hel is next up. It’s a half-pace marcher with stabbing chords in the verse and a cool, chanty chorus. But the cracks are starting to widen. The penultimate track, New Order has a cool, Maiden-style pull-off riff and a tense, thrashy feel but the vocalist sounds like he’s getting tired. The pitch is still fine but the intensity is fading. Lastly, we have O-Hey O-Ho, which starts off at a gallop, settles into a catchy, half time riff and finally saunters into the outro of what I assume is a tavern scene with conversations and breaking beverage vessels.
After my first listen to this album, I found myself thinking, “This is a great first outing for a bunch of kids at the start of their career.” I mean, the album’s pretty loose at times and the whole recording has a slightly rushed feel as the album goes on but just like the early albums of Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath, they are more about the youthful, passionate delivery than they are about perfect performance and production. Then I Googled the band and found that they are all in their 30’s and this is their second album. Which makes It all the worse. This is an album of good material delivered not so well which leaves me with a feeling of a band that can’t or won’t try just that little bit harder to really put out their best stuff. This album will go on my ‘workout’ and ‘party with beer and friends’ playlist but it won’t go onto my daily one. I give this album 2.5 raised, shouty beers out of 5.
Release Year: 2019
Label: Rockshots Records
Category: Album
Country: Italy
Reviewed by Chris St Clair
