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Review: Elwing - War
Elwing
www.elwingband.cjb.net
War

Label: Black Lotus Records
Year released: 2005
Duration: 45:29
Tracks: 10
Genre: Power Metal

Rating:
4/5


Review online: October 22, 2005
Reviewed by: Michel Renaud
Readers' Rating
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Rated 3.71/5 (74.29%) (7 Votes)
Review

After a few years of power metal being dominated by the "flowery" kind - at least from a popularity point of view, we are beginning to see more and more bands that put the "power" back into the genre. That's not to say that "flowery" PM isn't any good, and that's a whole different subject of discussion. ;) Elwing hail from Greece and with their second album "War" present us with a nice little slab of raw, epic power metal. Borrowing a little in attitude from such bands as Manowar and Doomsword, but with an unmistakable power metal sound, the songs here are powerful and catchy (most of these have been stuck in my head for weeks and just won't go away) and when you get into the right mood, the album title comes to life as these have that "battlefield" aura that makes this such such a good album. Oftentimes an album sounds like just a bunch of songs thrown together with nothing but the band's name binding them. "War" on the contrary flows quite nicely from beginning to end.

There are some rough edges here and there, but in most cases they had some charm to the album. Some vocal melodies sound a bit off, however, such as on "Fly Away" which irritates me on every listen (but that doesn't prevent it from being stuck in my head...) "Blood on my Hands" is a power ballad that starts up sounding great, but eventually drags a bit too much for its own good. The vocals are quite powerful and actually sound manly, a good change from some other power metal bands.

Not a perfect album, but good enough to play over and over without getting tired of it. The band still has some work to do to polish a few things here and there (easy on the double bass - the weaker songs here are weakened even more by the abuse), but Elwing are definitely a band to keep an eye on.

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