03/18/2024

Undead Goathead

Dedicated to metal, music, and mischief.

Album Review: Immortal Guardian – Age of Revolution

 

Soaring power metal vocals, wailing guitars, triumphant melodies, and just enough distortion to hint at thrash and death metal influences. Shredding solos, double pedal drumming, and heart racing rhythms make this a solid metal album. These traditional metal themes match up with progressive rock.  This band experiments with several unexpected genres, including folk music and flamenco. Somehow, it works.

The album art is reminiscent of classic Iron Maiden record sleeves. The logo is another nostalgic throwback, alluding to the fantasy inspired designs of early metal bands. The band name Immortal Guardian invokes black metal icons Immortal, and power metal titans Blind Guardian.  This band also embodies many of the musical traits of favorite bands:  Eccentric instrumental interludes, nice contrast between clean singing and more brutal screams, catchy rhythm and fast tempo. This is metal in all of its demon fighting, dragon slaying glory. It’s beautiful yet brutal.

Even with all of their melodic majesty, there is still a bittersweet tinge of sorrow and righteous anger in these songs. Stardust is a prime example. High pitched notes contrast with lower pitches, resulting in the dissonance of large intervals. It brings to mind the archetype of a falling angel. The range is impressive, spanning the depths of hell to the heights of heaven in a single measure.

Badass yet emotional, songs of battle and victory are contrasted with songs of anguish and defeat. The symphonic elements and campy keyboards are over the top, but that’s part of the appeal. After all, metal has always been extreme. Age of Revolution is a great album, fun and exciting to listen to. The upbeat energy takes unexpected twists and turns. This release was highly entertaining and vibrant. Four Stars out of five!