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Holy Dragons - Black Moon Rising review




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Reviewer:
7.6

3 users:
7.67
Band: Holy Dragons
Album: Black Moon Rising
Release date: 2006


01. Black Moon Rising
02. Freedom
03. Tengri
04. Bullet And Bayonet Steel
05. Forbidden Horizon
06. Delusion
07. Master Of The World
08. Dynamite
09. Black Moon Daughter
10. Sons Of Judas
11. Mirror Of Fate

Last year, I wrote the review of "Volki Odina", last album of the Kazak Heavy/Power Metal combo Holy Dragons. If it wasn't so bad, it was a bit average and really common and even if it was an album of Power metal it clearly lacked of violence and anger? But, this is not the same with their new album "Black Moon Rising"! At the opposite of "Volki Odina", the 10th album of the combo is extremely thrashy and yes with this kind of music I can say that now I'm starting to like a lot Holy Dragons!

The principal difference between "Black Moon Rising" and "Volki Odina" is that "Black Moon Rising" is not linear. A song like "Black Moon Rising" is not so far of Thrash (or at least Power a la Iced Earth) when "Tengri" with its folk choruses and break produced by some Jew's Harps are really surprising! As you can understand, there are a lot of variations and since that the length of the songs is never short (6 - 7 minutes in general) you'll be able to find a lot of breaks, rhythms changes, acoustic parts etc. This album is fast, this is Power Metal after all but it never lacks of good catchy melodies and its "violence" is a great thing in my opinion. "Black Moon Rising" is not a boring release!

The only problem, for me, with this release comes from some vocals. The high-pitched ones are a bit average and not so good. Sometime I even have the feeling that it is out of tune but on the other hand the lyrics in Russian, even if I cannot understand anything, fits perfectly to the music. All in all, when it comes to the vocals of "Black Moon Rising" we have good and bad things but it never lacks of energy!

"Black Moon Rising" is a lot better than "Volki Odina" which was a disappointment for me. This album is full of variation and the fact that some songs flirts with Thrash Metal is a great thing! All the ones who like aggressive and heavy Power Metal will have to check this release? I'm sure that they will have a lot of good surprises!


Rating breakdown
Performance: 7
Songwriting: 8
Originality: 7
Production: 8

Written by Jeff | 14.09.2006





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