InfinityZero : 16/20 | Forgotten Legacy is a newly formed power metal band from the US of A, and their debut demo, The Oracle, is an enthusiastic and well put together demo that showcases the band's 80s power metal influence.
The first song is 2012, and since this is a demo, the band wastes no time wanking around with lengthy intros. We jump straight into a twitchy, hyperactive lone guitar riff, and then the drums, guitar and bass come in. Then our vocalist enters, and the song gets moving. The song transitions into a sort of grooving, winding chugger, moving along at a good medium pace.
It's here that I notice the production. First off, I'll say that this isn't the kind of stuff I expect from a demo. The production is worthy of a full-length studio album. I can hear everything, right down to the bass guitar. But it isn't all good. While everything in the production is crisp, clear and clean, it isn't dynamic at all. It's rather thin-sounding, sort of drawn back. It isn't as explosive as it could be, and there doesn't seem to be much life or power to it. It's crisp, but it's also toneless.
As soon as the vocalist (Joel Wood) is introduced, he shows us all of his range straight away. His voice is classic power metal, and could be described as a mix between King Diamond from Mercyful Fate and Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden. He defenitely has his pipes ready and fine-tuned for the demo, and he knows what he's doing. Maybe they're not the most difinitive vocals out there (in fact most of the time I find myself thinking of other singers while I'm listening to this), but he's defenitely not wasted as a frontman. There is the odd time where Joel vocalizes along with a passage rather than using actual lyrics, and these are sort of hit and miss. Sometimes they work with the music, sometimes it feels out of place. Overall, he always keeps dominant control of the song, and he lends a lot of energy to the song, somewhat making up for the uninteresting production.
The guitars, thankfully, aren't overly obsessed with making the fastest riffs they can every second of every song. There is plently of shredding and wild moments, but this demo isn't completely concentrated on speed, allowing the band to give a wider range of riffs. The slower riffs aren't boring, though. While they are relatively simple, they're nice and bouncy, rock n' rollish in tone. There's plenty of interesting stuff going on guitar-wise, and there's more range from them than one would find on, say, a Dragonforce album.
The Oracle wraps up with probably the most varied song on the album, Forgotten Legacy. It's a nice slow wind-down track that gives you a good look at the softer songs that this band can produce. It's sort of like this band's own Fade to Black. Everything is nice and soothing, the vocalist goes for some softer tones... It does transition into a slow headbanger, but at no point does it blast at you with wild guitars and machine-gun drumming; it stays in a nice soft range. A nice way to end the album.
The songs themselves are all fairly exciting, and since the demo is only about 25 minutes the band never gets in danger of getting boring or monotonous. Generally, the album is mid-paced (which is a little different considering it's a power metal album), but at no point does it get dull. There's enough variation and tempo changes throughout each song to keep me interested.
So there you have it, Forgotten Legacy's first demo. I will say that this is a greatly enthusiastic and interesting debut, and the band sounds highly professional (some of the songs on this sound like they could be written by a band that's been around for 15 years), and it's choc-full of grooving melodic riffs and passages that make everything seem nice and flowy, without the album coming across as disorganized. Forgotten Legacy aren't exactly oozing originality and they have yet to find their own difinitive groove in power metal, but they are a confident band, and I hope that they continue to improve as their career takes off. I recommend this demo if you're into power metal and you're looking for a new band to follow.
2011-03-18 02:05:27
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