Primalfrost - "Prosperous Visions" (2014)

Avatar do Utilizador
Toretto
Ultra-Metálico(a)
Mensagens: 1068
Registado: segunda jan 29, 2007 3:51 pm
Localização: Leiria

Primalfrost - "Prosperous Visions" (2014)

Mensagempor Toretto » domingo mar 16, 2014 5:34 pm

Imagem

Primeiro álbum desta one man band canadiana dirigida por um jovem de 17 anos. A sonoridade será, basicamente, death melódico sendo que a melhor forma de a explicar é fazendo um paralelo com o que os Wintersun fizeram no primeiro álbum. Está muito acima da mera competência.

http://primalfrost.bandcamp.com/
http://www.facebook.com/Primalfrost

Tracklist:
01. Visio Prosperum
02. Distant Cries Of War
03. An End To Tyranny
04. Path Of The Sky
05. Beyond The Shores And Lands
06. Tale Of The Hero
07. Cathartic Quest (An End To Tyranny Part II)
08. Awakening Of The Boreal Sun
09. Silencing The Empire
10. Unforgotten Valour

There seems to be something in Canadian waters that produces high quality one-man projects, especially in the viking/black/folk metal areas. Calgary’s Dark Forest, London’s Sig:Ar:Tyr and now Toronto’s Primalfrost. Brainchild of Dean Arnold, Prosperous Visions is his full-length debut after the EP Chapters of Time two years ago and it has turned out to be a nice slab piece of epic black/power/folk metal.



Now if you have a keyboard allergy or are overall too much of a purist to accept this instrument, then leave Primalfrost and this review behind right now, because you will not find happiness here. If you either like the keys or can arrange yourself with them, then by all means read on, because Prosperous Visions is pretty impressive for a 17 (!) year old! And the album is not that easy to pigeonhole, since Arnold manages to layer the songs well and almost constantly shifting tempo without losing focus or flow.

Primalfrost band

Intro “Visio Prosperum” (the Latin translation of the album title) is widescreen, epic and a bit too long, but “Distant Cries of War” hits home with its masterful switches from double-bass mid- and slow-paced, contrasting harsh black metal vocals with beautiful arpeggiated guitars and heavy guitars with great melodies, the only element that does not fully keep up with the variety of the music are the rasps, only way into the song there are some clear vocals introduced, which are layered over slow-paced metal, which sounds great, but is under-utilized. Doesn’t really detract from the quality of the song, though.



Variety is a big asset of Prosperous Visions, especially if it is brought together with such flow and dynamics, keeping the song itself in mind, while spicing them up with nice little details. “An End to Tyranny”, for example, starts out with this intricate acoustic guitar and it is its melody that keeps coming back as great contrast to the harsh blastbeat attacks that keep popping up, kicking off a great, varied track that literally is all over the place, but in the good way. And it continues on four tracks later, with the 14-and-a-half minute epic “Cathartic Quest (An End to Tyranny Part II)”, which is nothing short of impressive: going from acoustic guitars to blastbeats and back (and pretty much anything in-between), clearing a path through the underwood with the voice alone, just to break through it with a great and expressive clear voice, keeping an epic feeling through the valleys and mountains that the song takes us through, making the 14 minutes pass by in a breeze. Here the keyboards do take on the lead role more than once, but Arnold makes it work and fit without sugar-frosting the song.



Obviously other songs pale in comparison, but epic rollercoaster “Beyond the Shores and Lands”, slow-paced “Tale of the Hero” that is completely sung cleanly or powerful “Silencing the Empire” can more than just stand their own and prove that Prosperous Visions has a lot to offer. And Arnold adds quite some musical prowess to this as well, with his guitar work at times bordering on shredding without tearing apart the flow and epic character.



Primalfrost’s debut on its own has turned out to be an impressive affair with tons of variety held together by an epic atmosphere already, but add to it that this is the result of one man, a very young man, putting everything together is a more than remarkable feat and one can only dream what Mr. Arnold will be able to grow into… Prosperous Visions is an early highlight of 2014!

http://www.metal-observer.com/3.o/revie ... s-visions/

Imagem

Voltar para “Arquivo 2014”

Quem está ligado:

Utilizadores neste fórum: Nenhum utilizador registado e 9 visitantes