Format: CD Condition: New Year of Release: 2006 Cat. No.: 139 Label: Emm/Season Of Mist
***** Great thrash-tinged power metal By T. Lemos (New England)
This is the first album I've bought from Ancient Rites and it was well worth the money. Power metal is not a very innovative genre, but the thrash and even death-infused power metal crafted by Ancient Rites is fresh and enjoyable. Though much of the album features orchestration, it avoids the sometimes tacky metal-meets-Broadway trappings of so much of the genre.
The playing on here is quite solid, as is the songwriting. The songs are certainly not avant-garde in terms of structure, but they are catchy. As a historian and consummate geek, I also appreciate the historical subject matter of the lyrics. The gruff but not growled vocals aren't half bad, either.
