Angelwings
Primordium

The first symphonic metal band from Gibraltar, how about that? Now Gibraltar is both small and borders to Spain that have many such bands, so it is probably not really something to take note of. The cover is noteworthy though, and Primordium is their second album. Their first album was released in 2017, so they have taken their time to get to a second one, but I guess that stupid pandemic made scheduling more difficult. So how about this one then?

Female fronted symphonic power metal, you could draw parallels to plenty of bands within that genre and note that these guys are similar. They do have a slightly personal style that would make them recognisable for fans of the genre, but they are hardly what can be called original. The singer is relatively good and shows a fine range in her performance, there are better singers in many bands of the genre though. The album is also quite long with over an hour playing time on ten tracks, and they start with a ten-minute track, there are several strange instances like that throughout the album. It is something that makes it seem oddly sequenced, the tracks would probably come more to their right if the order of songs was different.

They have some excellent tracks on this album, like the title track. But they also have some weaker moment, like the opening tracks that feels like an ending. There are moments throughout where the album just loose its momentum and I kind of feel like it is about to end, but then it begins again. It seems as this album would need some trimming and reordering to make it more exciting, as it is obvious that the band has what is needed to make a great album but they fail to make the best out of what they have. Many tracks are too long, but that is not all. The thing is that there are several good moments where the album grabs my attention, but then it fails to keep it and the mind starts wandering into other avenues.

It is clear that they could have done something quite magnificent here, but they end up making something fairly enjoyable and probably worth checking for the ones into the genre. It is kind of like they were aiming for the stars but eventually ends up in the treetops due to the sheer weight of the thing, with some trimming it can be quite exciting in the future.

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