Kerion
Cloudriders: Age of Cyborgs

So, it is time for cyborgs now, Kerion’s story takes us to their age on the third release that has the head title Cloudriders. The French band offers a good-looking album, with artwork from some Marvel guy. Pretty cool artwork, the story is about cyborgs and stuff like that, I read that there is a steampunk sense to it, but I don’t know about that – it doesn’t feel very steampunky, that is dirtier while this is quite clinical. Other than the cool artwork the band shows a guestlist with some known singers, at least known in the area of music the band belongs, perhaps most notably Elisa C. Martin who is known for Dark Moor and Fairyland. So, what about this sci-fi adventure then?

Some of it has me thinking a bit about Scanner’s debut album, I think it is the tone of some spoken word that gets me there because it isn’t very similar musically. And Scanner is a lot better. The vocals are of the female variety, the accent always quite prominent, something that I find a bit detrimental, especially in the spoken word parts. The variety through the tracks are quite good, power metal, a little symphonic and epic, storytelling music. Catchy for the most part, but also a bit long, I find that albums that are over fifty minutes often feel too long, this is no exception to that. The modernity and sci-fi comes from synths and electronic sounds, and they mostly add to the feel of the album, but sometimes it is a tad detrimental too. Overall, it is a well-produced but not a special album in terms of how it sounds.

Pretty good, I like sci-fi, and I find this to be a relatively good story. Still, it will probably never be considered the most impressive release ever made, and the cyborgs of this album don’t really feel that impressive, not like the terminator models or other epic cyborgs. I also miss a standout hit song; the album has several strong songs but none that really stands out. I also find myself dreaming of hearing this with other singers as the accents are often annoying, especially in the spoken word parts where it can be quite terrible.

So, I like the idea of comic metal, and epic stories in that is akin to that format. But I think that kind of music has greater potential than is being on display when I listen to this album. I find this to be a good entertaining for a short while, but there are so many greater albums like this and in the sci-fi power metal genre there is no one that triumphs Hypertrace from 1989, it is still more timeless and great than this album. I know you cannot directly compare them, but weaponised epic power metal will always lead to Hypertrace parallels and if you are not amazing you are just outclassed in that genre. In the end, this is good but not good enough to make any major lasting impression.

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