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STARLIGHT RITUAL “Rogue Angels”
STARLIGHT RITUAL “Rogue Angels”
By Colonel Angus
This Canadian outfit started off a little more than a decade ago as more of a doom metal band. Their first E.P. really should be considered an album. While only containing four compositions, the material meandered, and the band quietly slipped off my radar. But “Rogue Angels”, their latest release, proves I may have judged them too quickly. After doing some internet and Youtube (I know, Youtube is on the internet) detective work, I realized by their second E.P., they ditched the doom metal aspects of their sound and focused on a more traditional metal vibe with shorter, catchier tunes. By the time of their first official full length “Sealing Starlight”, they were confidently blending old-school metal with flashes of speed metal flair.
The record starts off with this epic doom metal vibe but quickly speeds up to morph into a hard hitting semi-speedy metal track. Once it gets going, “Lost Among the Fold” leaves the doom aspects in the rearview mirror and focuses on just good old fashioned metal with a hint of IRON MAIDEN and THIN LIZZY thrown into the mix. The title track slows the pace slightly, leaning into classic metal territory while showcasing Dan Toupin’s standout guitar work. Moving forward, “Crusader” has this great MANOWAR vibe where that chugging riffing collaborates with the epic nature to create one of the “truest” metal pieces on the album. There is not a second of “false metal” on that one.
The catchy riffing continues with “Far Beyond the Storm” but what I really enjoyed is the brief bass breakdown in the middle of the track. It creates a little drama to a relatively straight forward piece. The strutting nature of “Of Words” brings a nice detour to the pounding material that proceeded it plus it gives the whole disk a nice bit of variety. The subject matter of “Omenkillers” is about what you would expect and to make things even more interesting, it has this really cool RAVEN-esque edge.
In all honesty, the next two songs are very interchangeable as both “The Law” and “On the Run” both have the same tempo and while there are differences, they both fly by without really leaving a mark. They are not bad songs by any stretch but compared to the other material, these two fall a little short. They redeem themselves really nicely with the epic sounding “Exodus”. This one has DIO written all over it and sounds like it could have come off “The Last in Line”. It is a moody piece that incorporates slower sections along with hard hitting parts to create this very dramatic classic. The album closes with a short little soundscape called “Aftermath” which is an odd way to close a record but it does fit in with the vibe of the previous track so it works.
So there you have it my metal compadres, a new record from STARLIGHT RITUAL that carves a different path than their debut E.P.. For my money, they have improved by leaps and bounds since that release and after listening to their previous full length, this one is an improvement. I have to say that I’m a little disappointed in myself for writing off the band so quickly because “Rogue Angels” is a great album aside from those two late-album tracks. Again, not bad songs but they set the bar high with the previous tunes. All in all, “Rogue Angels” is easily a 4.75 out of 5 in my book.
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