STORMLORD "Far"

STORMLORD

"Far"

"Far" is not the first nor will it be the last release ruined by a crummy drum sound. Within 10 seconds of "Leviathan", the clattering typewriter drum triggers made my stomach sour. There's no attempt to cover it up. This is now the norm for many bands and it's a shame. It really hurts STORMLORD in my eyes.

This is the band's sixth album so they obviously have a fanbase. I would describe their sound as a mix of melodic death metal in the vein of AMON AMARTH with super symphonic power metal. This is an extremely overproduced record...the synthetic symphonic sounds are bombastic to the point of ridiculousness and often drown everything else like a thick coat of paint. Now there are sections where the symphonic grandeur works to the band's advantage, as on "Cimmeria" and the title track, but more often it swamps everything. Except those damn typewriter drums. The vocals are all over the place...super gruff death metal growls, black metal raven rasps, clean baritone singing, clean "power metal" type tones. The growls are actually more prevalent than I would have thought for such a band.

Some good moments arise. The opening chords of the title track are really cool and unique, "Cimmeria" achieves a real epic feel and "Meditteranea" almost sounds like Rotting Christ meets power metal. And the guitar work is strident throughout. But the drums and the overdone symphonic stuff just hinder STORMLORD from achieving their full potential. They need to pull back and sound like a real band playing real instruments.

SCARLET RECORDS

STORMLORD