The Storyteller
Sacred Fire

That is a name that does trigger some expectations and one that I think you have to live up to if you name your band that way. And the press info mentioning things like a never-ending story and things like that, trying to sell this guys very expensively. They have been around for like fifteen years and have released a half-dozen album if you include the one they are about to release with this one. They do have a hammer and flames on the cover and the title is Sacred Fire, worrying? Well, I tend to think so, those titles and covers tend to mean only one thing, Hammerfallish power metal with knights in shining armour, swords, hammers and whatever else they tend to use in this kind of power metal.

And the thing is that it is just that kind of music, the label states that it is traditional power metal with a touch of the medieval, with medieval being a very loosely used word in this regard. It is quite the typical soundscape that we hear from all the bands in the genre, neither better, nor worse than most. If you are looking for a more unique brad of power metal I suggest that you turn your gazes elsewhere because this does it according to the format, to the letter. I don’t think that is the way to go for a band that calls themselves The Storyteller, their music should be more, more than your average standard power metal production, it has to be something larger than life, it has to be THE epic power metal production and it isn’t and has never been. The Storyteller has never lived up to their name and unless they start taking strides away from the Hammerfall and Helloween tried and tested stuff, they will never do that.

The album has a dozen tracks and takes more than 50 minutes to play through and this on an album that is fairly short on variation as well. It is easy to loose patience with it towards the end. The label uses grand wording like that the band never fails to fulfil expectation and deliver the goods, and sure if you expect what the logo, the album titles and the cover artworks suggests, then they don’t fail to deliver but if you want them to deliver something worthy of a Storyteller, they fail miserably. I think it is a good enough album to please those who like the genre, hell, I like it as it is an entertaining piece of music, maybe not the best I have heard but as background I find it good enough. They keep on delivering what you have come to expect from them, nothing more and nothing less really.

The fourth track Ferryman is the one that stuck somewhat with me in a flow of decent tracks that doesn’t really catch much of the listener’s attention, as I stated before: it works as a background music kind of album and I have used it when going to sleep, I tend to fall asleep after half of the first track so it works well for that – much better than Toto. In the end though I think that if you are not a fan of hammer wielding knights in shining armour kind of power metal, you will probably not find much enjoyment here. If you are, by all means spend your money on buying this album as it will probably not disappoint.

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