Sangreal
s/t

Sangreal is mostly an Italian band with Italian production assistance like the great Simone Mularone doing the mastering to name an example. But there is a Finnish drummer and a Cypriote bassist to make it a little bit more a European band – to say international like the press material would be a slight exaggeration I think. This is the debut album, a self-titled one about legends, religious stuff and things like that. It comes on CD and limited edition vinyl and the cover art is good so a vinyl could be considered, but should it be?

Stylewise it is nothing new, power metal, epic heavy metal, melodic epic metal, something like that in terms of style. Metal with pretty catchy style, choirs, some classical undertones and mostly anthemic hymns – could be considered epic. The vocals are pretty good; the vocalist has been heard in bands like Thy Majestie and Doomsword to name a pair. The variation is pretty good but always sticks within the confines of the established parameters of the genre, there are no surprises and perhaps thanks to the vinyl release the album is kept short enough with a playing time of little over 40 minutes. It is always good when bands realise that more is rarely ever more in terms of quality, so a plus on that notion.

While imagination seems to be a bit deficient it is enjoyable thanks to pretty strong songs. I don’t think there are any major weaknesses but the lack of fresh ideas and the very strong sense of familiarity makes it feel a bit repetitive pretty quickly and after a few plays I just want to Frisbee throw the disk far away from here. Fortunately I got it digitally so I cannot throw it away and instead I can conclude that if you like the epic style of metal you will probably find this one to your liking. The same applies if you like the Italian metal, because it sounds very Italian.

So, if you fit the format for the potential fan of this and you should have a closer look at it. Otherwise I am not really sure that you need to bother too much as there are finer choices to select from, it isn’t bad and I doubt anyone will think of it as such – it is just that it isn’t really as exciting as the legends it takes inspirations from.

HHHHHHH