GLORYHAMMER
GLORYHAMMER - “Return To The Kingdom Of Fife”
By Iron Sheik
With “Return To The Kingdom Of Fife” GLORYHAMMER have a new singer, Sozo Michael aka Angus McFife, who is the third guy named McFife to front the band. This new album is his full debut. He has a voice perfectly suited to their type of music i.e. heavy metal, power metal, and symphonic metal. Over the top would be an understatement describing the album and it's story.
As the album and story begin one shouldn't be surprised by the music to follow with lead in “Incoming Transmission”. It sounds like an intro to a movie. At this point I lost interest in them but still listened to the rest of the album anyway. It reminded me of what RHAPSODY OF FIRE was bringing to the masses in the late 90s and forward and of course doing it better. Hints of BLIND GUARDIAN of the early 00s are present too. By the time “Brothers Of Crail” finishes in the mid section of the album ,all I can think is been there, heard that.
A goofy (really silly) sci-fi space opera that is laughable, “Return To The Kingdom Of Fife” is almost instantly relegated to a pile of albums collecting dust. Although “Return To The Kingdom Of Fife” is a tale of the lost kingdom and reclaiming of it with the Holy Flaming Hammer Of The Unholy Cosmic Frost, it all comes across a bit tiresome. After the pirate-y sounds of “Brothers...” the music returns to the preceding sounds. Throughout the album gruff vocals are used for carrying the story of nuclear warfare.
GLORYHAMMER, having put together the aforementioned cheesy concept album, would have fit right in the music scene of the early 00s. It is a tight album musically, but it relies too much on an over done over saturated style of symphonic power metal. If the album didn't depend on all the different atmospherics tricks that it does, it could be better and fresh sounding. Relegating keyboards to the background and bringing the guitars forward could do wonders. In the end GLORYHAMMER is playing the music they want and they are all excellent musicians. Only this and nothing more...