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Guardians Of Time - Rage And Fire review



Reviewer:
9.0

26 users:
7.77
Band: Guardians Of Time
Album: Rage And Fire
Release date: May 2015


01. Praeludium In Ferrum Pectore
02. Iron Heart
03. Empire
04. Euphoria
05. Save Me
06. Tomorrow Never Comes
07. Standing Tall
08. Primevil
09. End Of Days
10. Core
11. Rage And Fire

Norway isn't well-known for power metal when compared to neighbours Sweden, but Guardians Of Time are more than capable of matching the quality of just about any power metal band on the scene today. This is the fourth studio album, released after their return in 2011, and it is easily a contender for power metal album of the year. A Beautiful Atrocity showed a change in style for the band, with a more progressive quality to the music. However it would be completely wrong of me to say that the band has ever written generic power metal as I think they have already created a signature sound that makes them instantly recognisable over many other bands in the genre. Rage And Fire isn't as progressive as their previous effort, but it is heavy, melodic and catchy from start to finish.

It is relentless and rarely slows down, offering track after track that would be fitting for any setlist Guardians Of Time takes on tour. The Middle-Eastern-themed "Empire" is as close as the band comes to producing a ballad here and it is an Iced Earth-style mid-tempo headbanging anthem. It is obvious that all the members are skilled and capable of highly technical music, but this doesn't stop just about every song from having memorable hooks and melodies. It has been a while since I have heard a power metal release that has so many sing-along choruses. If you are looking for melodic power metal with heavy double bass drumming and Pyramaze-style riffs and melodies, then this is the album for you. Tracks such as "Tomorrow Never Comes" and "Core" reminded me of Helloween, and "Save Me" begins with a Rob Halford-style scream. "Primevil" reminded me of earlier Primal Fear albums - a negative for some, but I see it as praise for the quality of music on show.

I can hear many influences and the album does match the style of 2004's Machines Of Mental Design in some ways. Even with these influences, Rage And Fire still sounds like Guardians Of Time and that's helped by the vocals of Bernt Fjellestad, which do not really sound like any other vocalist I have heard in this genre. He puts in another impressive performance on this album. The guitars are also impressive and the fast solos never seem out of place or just shoved into the song for the sake of it.

Rage And Fire is another strong album from one of the most underrated bands in power metal. It is easy to recommend this to fans who are perhaps disappointed in the more recent work of bands such as Helloween, Iced Earth and Gamma Ray. This album is the one that really should propel them to the next level. It is accessible while never sounding completely generic. It is heavy, very melodic and every track is capable of becoming a live anthem. Many big players are releasing or have released power metal albums in 2015, but it is the unknown Guardians Of Time who have produced the go-to power metal album of the year.


Rating breakdown
Performance: 9
Songwriting: 10
Originality: 7
Production: 9

Written by Belegûr | 26.06.2015




Comments

Comments: 14   Visited by: 321 users
26.06.2015 - 22:34
Bad English
Tage Westerlund
I dunno this band, I will try out, nice writing style
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Life is to short for LOVE, there is many great things to do online !!!

Stormtroopers of Death - ''Speak English or Die''
apos;'
[image]
I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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27.06.2015 - 03:27
Metashadow8

Thanks for introducing me to this band! I dig what I heard.
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27.06.2015 - 11:24
Rating: 9
Belegûr
Arise In Might!
Written by Metashadow8 on 27.06.2015 at 03:27

Thanks for introducing me to this band! I dig what I heard.


Nice one! They need more people to listen to them
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27.06.2015 - 19:47
Ag Fox
Angel No More
Okay. You've got my hopes up pretty high. Let's see how it turns out
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loves 小巫
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28.06.2015 - 02:02
jtowne1968
Account deleted
I just bought this album today. I really like the drumming and the guitar work. It is vaguely reminiscent of Sinbreed and Iced Earth, but that's good in my book! The vocals are fantastic and varied throughout (Alexi Laiho please pay attention!) and add to the overall classiness and grandeur of the album. This could be the best album of 2015!
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28.06.2015 - 05:40
Rating: 9
Belegûr
Arise In Might!
Written by Guest on 28.06.2015 at 02:02

I just bought this album today. I really like the drumming and the guitar work. It is vaguely reminiscent of Sinbreed and Iced Earth, but that's good in my book! The vocals are fantastic and varied throughout (Alexi Laiho please pay attention!) and add to the overall classiness and grandeur of the album. This could be the best album of 2015!


Great praise indeed . Were you planning on getting this album anyway or was it because of reviews you have read? Very happy to love the album. It's certainly my favourite album of the year so far!
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28.06.2015 - 09:03
jtowne1968
Account deleted
I pretty much buy every interesting Power Metal album and have done so since about 1984. Haha! Seriously! I love this album and I love this Metal Storm site! Great reviews, intelligent writing, very well done!
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28.06.2015 - 21:15
Mountain King
K i K o
Worth trying out, but who's disappointed with Helloween or Gamma Ray's latest releases? They are really good. As for Iced Earth, I never liked them that much...
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28.06.2015 - 21:19
Rating: 9
Belegûr
Arise In Might!
Written by Mountain King on 28.06.2015 at 21:15

Worth trying out, but who's disappointed with Helloween or Gamma Ray's latest releases? They are really good. As for Iced Earth, I never liked them that much...


Opinions. I thought it would be obvious when I say that the latest Helloween and Gamma Ray releases were disappointing that I am counting myself in that group for one. Also read the Metal Storm review of the latest Helloween release and you will see that the reviewer also thought it was pretty average.
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28.06.2015 - 22:58
Mountain King
K i K o
Written by Belegûr on 28.06.2015 at 21:19

Written by Mountain King on 28.06.2015 at 21:15

Worth trying out, but who's disappointed with Helloween or Gamma Ray's latest releases? They are really good. As for Iced Earth, I never liked them that much...


Opinions. I thought it would be obvious when I say that the latest Helloween and Gamma Ray releases were disappointing that I am counting myself in that group for one. Also read the Metal Storm review of the latest Helloween release and you will see that the reviewer also thought it was pretty average.


Yes opinions of course, but I like it myself although it's not their best but I didn't feel it got really bad reviews in general...
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28.06.2015 - 23:24
Rating: 9
Belegûr
Arise In Might!
Written by Mountain King on 28.06.2015 at 22:58

Written by Belegûr on 28.06.2015 at 21:19

Written by Mountain King on 28.06.2015 at 21:15

Worth trying out, but who's disappointed with Helloween or Gamma Ray's latest releases? They are really good. As for Iced Earth, I never liked them that much...


Opinions. I thought it would be obvious when I say that the latest Helloween and Gamma Ray releases were disappointing that I am counting myself in that group for one. Also read the Metal Storm review of the latest Helloween release and you will see that the reviewer also thought it was pretty average.


Yes opinions of course, but I like it myself although it's not their best but I didn't feel it got really bad reviews in general...


Again though, I never claimed anything of the sort. I said :

"It is easy to recommend this to fans who are perhaps disappointed in the more recent work of bands such as Helloween, Iced Earth and Gamma Ray."

Meaning that for those disappointed in the recent releases of said bands (like me), this one will maybe be more enjoyable for you.
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30.06.2015 - 05:25
Rating: 9
Belegûr
Arise In Might!
Written by deadone on 30.06.2015 at 05:14

Very good album. Good to hear power metal where they're not scared to have some balls.

Quote:
This album is the one that really should propel them to the next level. It is accessible while never sounding completely generic. It is


I odn't think it's enough to propel them to the next level. A lot of the melodies are too generic and there's not enough uniqueness to make them stand out of the pack. To do that would require something else more unique (and that hasn't happened in power metal for at least 15 years).

Still I think this is very good stuff and far better than most of the sad shit that passes for power metal these days.


I do understand your point. I suppose if generic sounding bands like Sabaton and Powerwolf can be considered big bands in power metal, then I was saying that a band like Guardians of Time should really be more popular. They have like 3000 fans on Facebook or something and are virtually unknown. I love all 4 of their albums and think they at least deserve better than where they are. Remember, by next level I don't mean to the heights of juggernauts like Gamma Ray etc, they have a long way to go before that, but at least better than an unknown power metal band. They are far better than that. That's pretty much what i meant.

Also like I said in my review, originality isn't a 10, but I can hear that it's Guardians of Time and it's still different to what they have done in previous albums. That itself is something to admire as other bands I've mentioned just live off copying their old songs over and over again.

Anyway, that's my point
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30.06.2015 - 07:51
Joe Zombie

Now this is some power metal I can really get into. Loving the melodies.
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30.06.2015 - 14:43
Rating: 9
Belegûr
Arise In Might!
Written by deadone on 30.06.2015 at 08:17

Written by Belegûr on 30.06.2015 at 05:25


I do understand your point. I suppose if generic sounding bands like Sabaton and Powerwolf can be considered big bands in power metal,then I was saying that a band like Guardians of Time should really be more popular


Totally agree! Guardians of the Time shit over most modern power metal including stuff by the big names. They should be a bigger name but alas it seems most modern PM fans are attracted to gutless and/or mindlessly melodic and/or extremely generic drivel.

Crap like Sabaton is proof of how far the genre has fallen.

I miss the old days of late 1990s/early 2000s when bands like Iced Earth, Tad Morose, Blind Guardian, Helloween, Gamma Ray and Angel Dust were cranking out awesome powerful metal and not over polished generic gutless crap.

Guardians of the Time harken more to that era the current crappy one.


Well that a was a time that even when these big bands were trying something different, it was still interesting. Blind Guardian made A NIght At The Opera which was even "bigger" than Nightfall. Helloween were doing The Dark Ride which is probably their last really really good album in my opinion (15 Years ago!!). Falconer appeared, Rhapsody made Dawn of Victory, Avantasia had a Metal Opera, Sonata were making power metal, Kamelot weren't completely boring.

Sigh, what happened to the genre? So many big bands are releasing complete crap now. I nearly fell asleep during Gamma Ray and Helloweens last efforts. These are the two bands that got me into the genre and were unstoppable for years. I think Land of the Free > No World Order is probably the best group of PM albums, alongside Blind Guardian from 90 to 2002

I'll stop the rant
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