You might say: Oh, yet another story about dwarfs and elves… why does Metal have to be convincingly linked to some fantasy setting?
Well, bands like Blind Guardian have been doing this for years, and they have done a pretty good job, but ever since, almost every single (Power)Metal combo is desperately trying to copy that concept. WHY?!
On first look this CD doesn’t offer any difference: Anthropia and publisher Magna Carta are promising a three chapter Metal-Opera, starting with the recent long player The Ereyn Chronicles.
A short focus on the storyline: The fictional universe of Ereyn, ruled by Queen Lunne, has sunk into chaos and disarray. The old ways have been forgotten… and so on.
Despite all the well-known fantasy hokus pokus, this CD in some belongings is different than other fantasy-inspired albums. The songs have a strong Progressive touch, but aren’t lacking power at all. The second track, “Questions Of Honour,” is filled with breaks and you clearly have to listen to it more often than once to recognize its full musical spectrum. By now, you might be asking yourself: “Wait a minute — is this even a Power Metal record?”
Before you might reach that point, there’s the intro, plagued by a Synth-Violin – the usual Powermetal Intro, which ends in a chorus that causes severe dizziness. The voices somehow sound strange and don’t seem to be really on point. But, during the following songs Anthropia mastermind Hugo Lefebvre does his best to beat that dizzy state right out of your head. This album is filled with excellent riffing and loads of enormous soloing.
Track four, “Through The Sleeping Seaweed,” ends in a whirlwind of notes and riffs and would rip every live crowd’s head off. Number seven, “Where The Secrets Lie,” starts with a solo that seems to be taken right out of some computer game, shifting into the slow-paced riffing of a Power Metal ballad. The 24-year old guitarist, and actually only steady band member, Lefebvre, besides drummer Damien Rainaud, is simply displaying his versatility, while showing flashes of all-time greats like Yngwie Malmsteen and John Petrucci.
In the end, The Ereyn Chronicles is offering a great spectrum of musical variety, none of the eleven songs sound like one another. The only weakness of this album lies in the lead singing, done by Lefebvre himself. It somehow resembles Dave Mustaine, but on the higher pitched parts he clearly lacks quality and does not really match this style of music.
However, if very solid to excellent instrumental play does it for you, then you should buy this album right away.
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