Halcyon Way
Conquer

It is the way of the kingfisher, that little bird with a long beak, a cool bird. Question is wether or not this american band is as cool or not, the cover artwork of their fourth album is definitely cool and great looking. Fact is that this album called Conquer is the first official album with which they are trying to conquer Europe, the other releases seem to have been only US releases. This album has received excellent reviews with full marks on many places, though several of them are known for overrating everything with the horror example being the temple which has awarded at least fifty of the albums we both have reviewed with full marks this year. During which time I have not given a single full mark to any album. Critics aren’t very critical these days, which of course does not mean that this album isn’t what they say it is.

It is progressive metal with lots of power focused on great melodies and choruses. It is complex structures while still keeping it simple to take in, a trademark of the best in the business of course. The vocals are shared between clean vocals and growls where the clean vocals are the most frequent which is fortunate considering how poor the growls are. The clean vocals aren’t the best either and quite nasally for most part but that often works well for the kind of songs they perform. The variation of the 53 minutes of music is very big but still coherent and with great depth which gives the album great longevity.

Originality is fairly common in this genre, definitely more common than any other metal genre. And these guys do offer some of it, in the way they put their stuff together but don’t expect something ground breaking as we have heard it before in similar guises by other american bands. But I like this album, as I am a critic I am nitpicking at things I find less pleasing which doesn’t mean that the album is bad because it has some bad parts like horrifically poor growls. No I think this album is great, the production is particularly excellent, hadn’t it been for the vocals I might have said perfect.

Strange thing is though, the video track or smash hit as Massacre states in their press release is probably the least interesting track on this album. It is a decent track but I am not sure that I would have even kept it on the album if I was the band and had recorded it. No there are other tracks that are much, much better like my favourite track World Comes Undone which just catches your attention from the first time you hear it. That is a smash hit. And there are a few more great pieces of music making this album a wonderful progressive metal album that is well worthy of a place in any serious progressive metal fan’s collection.

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