This is the debut album of Crimson Glory, who play US heavy/powermetal with progressive touch. The songs are quite straightforward driven, but have loads of nice hooks and catchy melodies thru the whole album to keep things interesting. The band really knows how to merge powerful and in-your-face powermetal with progressive elements to create very magical atmosphere, yet totally legit for headbanging also.
Midnight's vocals are the main dominant thing in this album. He has very strong high pitched voice, that would be able to break through the glass. His performance is truly just awesome, should I use word magical again? Because it kinda is. Energetic and dominating vocals of Midnight drive the music forward -- his performance really sets a match to very best performances of Rob Halford. Difference between Rob and Midnight mostly is, that Rob has that english accent, and he can use bit more rough and deep voice. Midnight mostly sings on full power with high pitch all the time, and he has very wide range even on highest pitch, which is quite insane. I'm not fan of many high pitched singers but Midnight truly is one of my faves.
Guitar melodies mix straight forward driven power-metal riffs to mosh to, with progressive heavy metal elements such as acoustic guitars, weird guitar tone and some insane melodic leads. It gives whole new twist to the music compared if all these additional progressive elements were left out. It's not progressive metal this one, it's a blend sailing between heavy, power and progressive, and works perfectly. I don't know many bands who can create this kind of atmosphere, but one mixing things a bit similar would be canadian Sacred Blade with their album Of The Sun + Moon. One other thing to stand out are quite awesome guitar solos which are just so well executed! They also fit into other riffs perfectly and manage to blend in the songs without feeling just as "that one necassary solo that has to be there every song".
This album is steel trough and trough. There's no single weak track included here, just very good to awesome pieces of music. I would raise mid-paced Valhalla, Dragon Lady with that awesome melodic chorus that just sticks into your head forever, beautiful Heart Of Steel with it's acoustic and electric guitars blending, and the pure power-metal asskicker Angels Of War. The rest ain't no bad either. For all fans of old school power-, progressive- and heavy metal.
Highly recommended if you're unfamiliar with the band! 90/100 (Awesome)
- Midnight (R.I.P. 2009) - Vocals
- Jon Drenning - Guitars (lead)
- Ben Jackson - Guitars (rhythm)
- Jeff Lords - Bass
- Dana Burnell - Drums
- 1. Valhalla 03:50
- 2. Dragon Lady 04:27
- 3. Heart of Steel 06:13
- 4. Azrael 05:37
- 5. Mayday 03:02
- 6. Queen of the Masquerade 05:27
- 7. Angels of War 05:28
- 8. Lost Reflection 04:47
- Total playing time 38:51
For Collectors:
(Following prices have raised since ’99 but will give you direction)
Used album price @ Martin Popoff’s Heavy Metal Record Price Guide (1999):
Label – Roadrunner/RR9655
Type – LP/US/86
Near Mint – $9
Very Good+ - $5
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