Immortal Guradian
Age of Revolution

A revolutionary age? Is that how they are looking at the times or do they mean that their debut album usher in an age of revolution, for them or for us all? It is the American band Immortal Guardian I am looking at and I cannot claim that their debut album has the most attractive artwork in the world of music, quite far from it. Fortunately it isn’t the artwork that is to be reviewed here but the music and the main man Guardian is apparently a very skilled musician and they have a Brazilian singer that is a lot mentioned in reviews and press material as well. Then there is the live thing, they have apparently shared venues with many famous artists, just like most bands I review it seems.

They do fall into the power metal moniker I think, some virtuous things and showing off musical skulls are also there. Thinking in direction of the likes of Malmsteen is quite easy when listening to the instrumentals. The vocalist has a wide range of voices he shows off, some growly some clean; he varies his singing quite a bit. That could make the 48-minute album seem pretty decent in terms of time. The music itself is fairly varied as well, but doesn’t always feel varied when listening to it. The production is solid, good, and perhaps not overly special but fits the album well. The vocals are okay as well. Originality is another matter; I would not say that these guys stand out as being original, or outstanding in any other way either.

I saw that this metal site that I don’t like was very impressed by this album claiming that their scale of rating wasn’t enough and thought it was worth twice the highest rating, like we would give it a 14/7. I am not really going to say how stupid that is but I can say that almost all things they celebrate as masterpieces is mediocre at best, like this album. They show off some great musicianship, unfortunately their song-writing leaves a lot to be desired. I found that I thought this was pretty good when I first heard it but I have been less impressed for each time I have played through this album. The album kind of melts together into a mass of power metal sounds that doesn’t always feel like they make sense, it may not be impressive but perhaps not vomit-worthy either.

The conclusion will have to be that the album is okay after all, far from great but you don’t feel sick listening to it and there is some impressive showing off here and there. They certainly know their craft; too bad they don’t know the song crafting as well as the musicianship. I don’t really think we can hear anything revolutionary on this album, neither in terms of musical ideas nor in terms of quality. It is just another album to toss away now that the review has been written.

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