Band:	Falkirk
Album:	Gates Of Dawn
Style:	Power metal
Release date:	2006

01. At The Gates Of Dawn
02. Endless Quest
03. Crimson Eyes
04. A Way To Follow
05. Two Of A Kind
06. Remember
07. Shadow Realms Pt. 1
08. Shadow Realms Pt. 2
09. Fading Away
10. End Of The Line
11. Silent Cries
12. World's Closing Chapter
13. Beyond The Gates Of Dawn

Falkirk is a new French combo that chose to follow the sinuous, dangerous and delicate road of the trendy Epic Power Metal a la Rhapsody. From all these different 'trendy' Metal (Gothenburg, Symphonic and other stuff) this is probably the more overrated and boring music that I had to listen to. It was really tricky for Falkirk and only an original release was able to save them, unfortunately they failed but at least we're in front of some good musicians so all is not over for them yet?

"Gates Of Dawn" follows ALL the clichés of the genre. Just imagine that you'll find the basic fast powerful songs that we find in all these kind of releases and which talk about fantasy stories evidently. Don't worry, we have super soli and catchy riffs and the melodies are legions. And also we have a ballad "A Way To Follow" and the big epic track of ten minutes to close the chapter. The songs aren't ugly actually, yes some of them are catchy that's a fact but damn the originality is near of zero and it's sad because at the end, Falkirk, which is a band that has a strong potential in my opinion, just produces a really conventional music.

On the other hand the production is good for a self-released album and the cover is just truly amazing. All the musicians of the band are good players and know how to sing and play with their instruments so at the end my principal regret come from this lack of originality. It's uncolored as hell and too much similar to all the others 10000? new releases of the style that we are able to find on our Metal stores every week. Falkirk is a good band I'm sure of it but please in the future guys, try to do something a bit more personal.

All in all, I can say that in the style, "Gates Of Dawn" isn't a bad album especially if you're a fan of the style but I'm sorry on the other hand there is nothing new here and only the ones who are addicted by this kind of music will find a real interested in this release. So my last word will be simple (but right), "Gates Of Dawn" is a CD for the fans of this kind of music only !!!