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I first came across Forgotten Tales about a year ago when they opened for Nightwish in Montreal. There they mostly played covers of European power metal bands along with a couple of their own compositions. I enjoyed their energetic show a lot and therefore I had high expectations for this first album of theirs. This female-fronted power metal band is almost a loner in the largely Death Metal-dominated province of Quebec, and that alone is worth a thumb up. Their influences are all European power metal bands and that's what they play. The problem, which was immediately apparent the first time I played the album, is that they play it "by the book". There's practically no originality here, the riffs being the usual power metal riffs that I've heard so many times, the bassdrums where you expect them (and also in a few places where I think they could have been left out). It is not a bad album, but it's not great either, and there are only a couple of songs that I really enjoyed, the other ones coming pretty flat in my ear. I think the production may have something to do with it as sometimes the guitars are not as audible as they should be - in short the production falls short of bringing the power out of this material which sounds much better live in my opinion. Essentially what makes this album noticeable is the voice of singer Sonia Pineault who has a very strong voice and especially she doesn't sound like all the power metal singers out there, so that's a nice refreshment. The music itself however is unfortunately a bit too generic. The lyrics are pretty good, however.

Forgotten Tales unfortunately come a bit late in the already very crowded power metal scene and I do not think that the material on this album will really set them apart from the many other bands out there. Having seen them live, I know they can handle their instruments expertly and put on a killer show. All they need is to set themselves apart from their influences and bring their own sound into their compositions.

Should you buy this... Well, if you do not have too many power metal albums, or if you just need every power metal albums out there, then by all means get it. However if like me you have quite a bit of power metal in your collection and are a bit picky, chances are you'll have the same reaction I did. There are some sound samples on their official web site that should help you decide. As for me, I'm still hopeful that they'll deliver the merchandise on their next album.