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Forgotten Tales - All The Sinners review



Reviewer:
8.8

26 users:
7.92
Band: Forgotten Tales
Album: All The Sinners
Release date: 2004


01. Pagan Chronicles
    1 - The Hideaway (Intro)
    2 - Lady Of The Forest
    3 - All The Sinners
    4 - Wind Oh Wind
    5 - The Message
    6 - March For Freedom
02. Three Wishes
03. Fairytales
04. My Soul
05. Magic Fountain

"Surrender all you sinners, whose hearts are in despair!"

Surrender indeed, to this great power metal CD. Well well, a Canadian power metal band, not exactly what Canada is famous for but anyway; Forgotten Tales play a very catchy and progressive kind of power metal. Great skill and great melodies in one. Awesome.

This being a very melodic power metal band with a female vocalist comparisons with Nightwish will be inevitable. Let me tell you what makes this album a lot better then Nightwish though. Talent. This album is crowded with it. From the awesome keyboard and guitar solos, to the rythmic and extremely variated drumming and the amazing vocals. The vocals... They aren't exactly operatic, yet they do have a 'trained' sound to them and they are extremely "strong." In any case they are wonderful.

I don't think that there are many power metal fans who can be disappointed by this. It has it's cheesy moments and fantasy lyrics but it's not over-the-top cheesy. It's very complex, yet at the same time very catchy and easy to listen to. It has some symphonic elements but not enough to be able to annoy non-classical music fans a lot. So basically what ever you like in power metal you'll find it here, and whatever you don't like, you won't find "too much" of.

Musically some parts remind greatly of Stratovarius, yet a lot less cheesy and much more variation. There are also a lot of progressions in this album. The whole musical soundscape sounding different from one second to the other, simply fantastic.

This second release by the Canadian band is also very catchy, after a few listens you'll probably find it impossible not to sing along to lines like "Wind Oh Wind, Carry My Words Away!" At the same time this is one of the songs with the most progression in the music. So you see, apparently it is possible to mix complexity with easy-listening. It doesn't matter if you like your power metal very melodic and catchy or if you like it complex enough that you can sink into the music and do nothing else but listen to the technical aspects. For both types of fans of this genre "All The Sinners" should be more or less perfect.

The production is quite clean too, not 100% perfect, but nothing to complain about. Not perfect but good enough. Despite the fact that this is a great CD it has a VERY severe lack of originality. Although it has a lot of different things at once, it has nothing that hasn't been done before. Complex and melodic power metal with fantasy lyrics, does this ring a bell? Well, I suppose it rings about twenty.

Time to sum up; no originality at all, yet extremely good music. Unoriginal but talented, melodic, epic, slightly symphonic, catchy and rich in variation.

Top songs: All are very good actually, you can't go wrong here.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 10
Songwriting: 10
Originality: 6
Production: 9

Written by Bas | 28.12.2006




Guest review disclaimer:
This is a guest review, which means it does not necessarily represent the point of view of the MS Staff.

Staff review by
Undercraft
Rating:
8.0
Forgotten Tales is a band I know by browsing through the web searching for new bands, at the time they had only one record released, "The Promise", I downloaded a couple of songs and really liked them, but that was in my Power Metal phase a couple of years ago, now I'm not that fond of Power Metal as before, but I can still recognize a good band when I listen to it, and Forgotten Tales is one.

Read more ››
published 20.11.2004 | Comments (3)


Comments

Comments: 4   Visited by: 23 users
28.12.2006 - 00:43
Susan
Smeghead
I have only heard one of their songs (which may or may not represent their entire sound) and I enjoy it. It's been quite some time but now, after reading your review, I have decided to go buy one of their albums. I have a feeling that I will agree with you completely
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"A life all mine
Is what I choose
At the end of my days"
--The Gathering "A Life All Mine" from Souvenirs
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28.12.2006 - 00:52
Rating: 9
Bas
Retired Staff
glad to hear that!


http://www.forgottentales.com/FT_HTML/en/download.html
here you can download four (live)videos from both albums, i dont know about the other album but those from all the sinners are fairly representive, great live performance too, very professional, sounds very close to the album versions
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BAS - Beautifully Accented Sexiness
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11.02.2007 - 18:30
Bararey
Winter is Coming
Just because I am a Power Metal freak I will go ahead and buy this album despite the fact you have repeated the word "cheesy" 3 time!!

Oh and before I forget: GREAT REVIEW!!
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"Rhaegar fought valiantly, Rhaegar fought nobly, Rhaegar fought honorably. And Rhaegar died."
Ser Jorah Mormont
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14.07.2009 - 02:04
Rating: 7
Wyrd

Great Review!! This album was AMAZING!!
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"The bands called Demon Hunter! They hunt demons!"
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