What I've always liked the most about this band is the vocals of Matthias Blad. His
majestic and almost seremonial kind of singing style makes the band different
from a lot of folk influenced power metal bands. The past years the band varied
from album to album in style, some were more pure power metal while others had
much more folk influences with flutes and stuff.
This new album is one that is fast and heavy for the big part. The folk elements
have almost completely gone, accept in some intros. The songs are still very recognizable Falconer, but with more aggression and edgier. The
guitars have a more prominent role and I for sure like that. Like I already said
the vocals of Matthias and the typical Falconer sound see to it that it still
sounds very known. The songs are rather fast and then especially in a track like
"Wasteland". It starts with a black metal kind of tempo and the blast beating
drums make this the heaviest song of the band to date. Another of my favorite
tracks is "There's a Crow on the Barrow", with a nice galloping rhytmn.
I think there will be critics that dislike the album a bit because of the
sporadic folk elements on this album, but I am not one of them. I have heard
that enough from this band and from a lot of other bands. I find this one of
their best albums, because they show that they still sound different from the
lot and that with skipping most of the folk elements.
