Twilight Force is a power metal band from Sweden founded in 2011 by guitarist Philip Lindh and keyboardist Daniel Beckman. The band describe itself as “adventure metal”, with role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons a major influence on the band’s appearance. Lyrically, Twilight Force is inspired by fantasy and fiction – namely, The Twilight Kingdoms, created by Beckman – and have released four albums to date: ‘Tales Of Ancient Prophecies’ (2014), ‘Heroes Of Mighty Magic’ (2016), ‘Dawn Of The Dragonstar’ (2019), and ‘At The Heart Of Wintervale’, emerging in 2023.
Featuring eight songs across forty-four minutes, ‘At The Heart Of Wintervale’ offers cinematic power metal with a sharp symphonic edge, an epic touch, and a sprinkling of the climactic! The band storm into sight with the classic sounding power metaller, the self-titled ‘Twilight Force’ – galloping at a fast and furious pace, banging the heads of metalheads everywhere. A truly engaging and blistering start to the new album, the band moves into the realms of the cinematic with the title song ‘At The Heart Of Wintervale’ – adopting a mid to high tempo with all the characteristics of classic European power metal. The band maintain the oomph from the opening salvo but adds symphonic and dramatic elements to give ‘At The Heart Of Wintervale’ (the song) an astounding edge.
Twilight Force is one of a new breed of power come, symphonic metal bands that deliver theatrical metal, a performance that stretches from (an album) start to finish and never loses your attention. Introducing a little folk metal, ‘Dragonborn’ is a lighter but out and out power metal march – the mid-paced, mid-tempo feel creates an epic atmosphere that lifts the album to new heights. At over ten minutes in length, ‘Highlands Of The Elder Dragon’ is the first of two songs to hit this mark – opening with a spoken word passage, becoming a fast gallop of heavy come power metal. Twilight Force maintains the cinematic feel they’ve built a reputation for – ‘Highlands Of The Elder Dragon’ a performance within a performance, the band delivering a storytelling vibe of the most fantastical nature.
And without dropping the fantastical nature, Twilight Force march on with the majestic swagger of ‘Skynights Of Aldaria’, portraying the enticing feel that this album has in abundance! Every song has hooks that grabs your attention and never let go – keeping you enthralled and enchanted. Yea, enchanted – that’s a good word. Along with mystical and magical, you can use any of these to describe ‘At The Heart Of Wintervale’ (the album) – it simply has the feel of fantasy! And fantasy is good, right – the freedom to create anything you want! And that’s exactly what Twilight Force has done, and it’s fucking superb! The one-minute mellow and effects-laden ‘A Familiar Memory’ is a sublime breather from all the bombast of the album to this point…
…leading straight into the pummelling power metaller ‘Sunlight Night’ – and the continuation of the cinematic style performance of power and energy that ‘At The Heart Of Wintervale’ (the album) is delivering. There has been fast. Mid and slow-paced power metal on offer to enjoy, with head bang ability, kept to a minimum, for this is an attention-focused album to enjoy and not just throw your head back and forth in wild abandon! An album that brings the curtain down with the second ten-minute plus offering, ‘The Last Crystal Bearer’, and what a swashbuckling finale it is! Atmosphere, tension and intrigue in droves, ‘The Last Crystal Bearer’ is an epic and glorious march that stands tall and very proud. And will no doubt garner a standing ovation too!
Overall, a simply gorgeous performance of cinematic style power metal, highly engaging and thoroughly enjoyable.
TRACKLIST
Twilight Force
At The Heart Of Wintervale
Dragonborn
Highlands Of The Elder Dragon
Skynights Of Aldaria
A Familiar Memory
Sunlight Knight
The Last Crystal Bearer
Twilight Force: Facebook
Release Year: 2023
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Category: Album
Country: Sweden
Reviewed by Iron Mathew for Frenzy Fire and Metal-Roos.
