PERPETUAL RAGE – Empress Of The Cold Stars

Empress Of The Cold Stars is a solid sophomore effort from Finland’s Perpetual Rage, recommended for fans of Melodic Metal featuring fantasy themes.  Think Cirith Ungol or John Arch-era Fates Warning. Vocalist Tomi Viiltola has a vocal style reminiscent at times of those two bands, although Arch hit all the notes, some of Tomi’s attempts take him into the helium balloon voice range. The misses appear most often on the choruses, which tend to be repetitive, such as in the otherwise great opener “Dragonlancer”. He’s stronger on the songs like “Mark Of Chaos” and “Privilege” where he sings primarily in the lower ranges, but unleashes air-raid yells as an accent more than as a main thrust. His occasional misses are a minor flaw, though, as the breadth of his range is impressive and his delivery emotive and powerful, matching the bands’ ability to shift tone and speed. The guitars are great throughout; the solos on “Privilege” and “The Empress” are especially fiery.

“Mesmeric Silence” is a decent track, but seems to be an odd choice to be vetted with a video as it is slower and less exciting than the double-bass driven tunes like quasi-title track “The Empress” or riff-heavy “Evil”, both of which seem to better exemplify Perpetual Rage’s current style. The album ends with a slow balladic number, “Silent Sky”, at times reminiscent of Maiden’s “Children Of The Damned”, a strange transition point to what is otherwise a hard rocking Metal album.

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