Silver Wind
Legion of the Exiled

This was old, and not only in terms of it sounding dated. It was released quite a while ago and has been hiding in my box of CDs to review for quite a while but now that I have been listening to it for a while I might just as well review it despite it being released long ago when I have done the work of listening to it. It is the debut album of this band, a band hailing from France and they seem to have an affinity for swords and steel, that sort of thing as most of their songs seems to be on that subject. Before this album they have released an EP and I do think that the artwork of this one is rather nice.

Heavy metal, classic heavy metal, is how I would describe this album in terms of style. The sound feels a bit on the dated side, almost like something that has been lying in that box since the eighties. The tracks are fairly catchy and the singer is generally quite okay even though the accent is a bit bothersome at times and his high-pitched vocalising is terrible. The playing time is sensible, the tracks are eight and one intro – originality is non-existent on the album as well, anyone looking for something original will not find it on this album.

Silver Wind makes a decent debut album, or a good one I think. The production isn’t great; the sound isn’t great as it sounds like something from a distant past rather than like a new album. But the songs make up for that by being quite strong and there is some catchiness to spice it all up, the energy is good as well and that gives a lot of life to the songs. Those enjoying classic heavy metal will most likely find this album most agreeable, if not quite great as it presses the right buttons for the traditional heavy metal fans who wants their favourite music to sound the same no matter who makes it.

You could of course object to the best track Medieval Steel being a cover song from the band with the same name as the song. And you could probably also object to all the boring lyrics about steel and swords and such things but in the end it is still a rather entertaining album to listen to. I think it might be worth checking out for anyone into classic heavy metal.

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