Damnation Angels
Bringer of Light

They come with big words and big claims these guys, they are said to be redefining the genre and doing things acclaimed big names are failing to do these days. “Comparable with mega acts such as Avantasia and Blind Guardian, delivering symphonic grandiloquence metal with the emphasis on the metal that bands such as Kamelot, Rhapsody Of Fire and Nightwish can’t seem to be able to produce anymore” it is said in the press release for this album. So, no small words for this quartet from Great Britain with a Swedish singer. Their album cover looks very nice I have to say and on the face of it there are things that looks interesting about this band who’s debut I am reviewing.

Symphonic power metal is what we are dealing with here, strangely familiar such I would have to say after hearing it several times now. Many things on it reminds me not just vaguely about something I have heard before and it is hard to think of an album in the genre that has given me such a feeling of déjà vu as this album. It is a high class production, the songs are catchy and the singer is great but I cannot help feeling that they have been spinning albums by Kamelot, Lost Horizon, Epica, After Forever and bands like that on repeat while writing the songs, especially Lost Horizon which they are very similar to. I think move the albums of Lost Horizon a decade forwards in time and bingo: Dino DNA, eh sorry, I meant Damnation Angels of course. Not a hell of a lot of variation on this album I would say, but at least a little bit of it whit a Metallica cover and all.

A good album it is as well, not very original but brilliantly made and with quite impressive arrangements and all of that. I like this album and it has a number of great tracks like the Metallica cover No Leaf Clover which feels like an odd cover song of that band considering it being written for the S&M album, not the one I would chose to cover. Then we have the ending song called Pride which is quite terrific but it also reminds me extremely much of something I have heard before but for some reason I cannot place which song it makes me think of at the moment but I might recall it later. Then we have some more greats in the title track and the one called Shadow Symphony and I must after that conclude that this is a great album, not very original but a great one.

It might be a tad long being almost an hour long but it works really well and like with Raven Lord earlier today it does not quite matter that it is a bit of déjà vu and lacks a bit of imagination because they know how to make the music they do even though they have trouble thinking out new songs. So if you like Lost Horizon and think they should have done more than two albums and evolved with today’s production then you have your album here. They may borrow from others but they do have their own flair and they are good so why not give them a spin or two because this album is great.

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