{"id":21782,"date":"2012-08-30T04:00:13","date_gmt":"2012-08-30T09:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=21782"},"modified":"2013-02-05T16:17:53","modified_gmt":"2013-02-05T21:17:53","slug":"elvenking-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2012\/elvenking-era\/","title":{"rendered":"Elvenking | Era<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– News Editor —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"Italian power\/folk metal band Elvenking hasn\u2019t had a very good track record lately. Their 2008 album Two Tragedy Poets (and a Caravan of Weird Figures)<\/em> was a mostly acoustic detour, and 2010\u2019s Red Silent Tides<\/em> was completely mediocre and about as far removed from the greatness of albums like Heathenreel and The Winter Wake<\/em> as possible. The band seems aware of this trend, and has pulled out all the stops on their latest album, titled Era<\/em>. It\u2019s Elvenking\u2019s seventh album, and features an array of guest musicians. Jon Oliva (ex-Savatage, Jon Oliva\u2019s Pain) is the most notable, but Folkstone\u2019s Maurizio Cardullo is also on board, providing whistles and bagpipes, and Netta Dahlberg provides some female vocals as well. On backing vocals, Alessandro Conti (Luca Turilli\u2019s Rhapsody), Marco Sandron (Eden\u2019s Curse, Pathosray) and Giordana Gisamano (Insanity Fair) all lend a hand.<\/p>\n

Of course, all the guest appearances in the world won\u2019t make much of a difference if the songwriting isn\u2019t up to par. Fortunately the band seems to have found some of the energy that was missing on Red Silent Tides<\/em>. Era isn\u2019t exactly Heathenreel Part 2<\/em>, but the folk elements are more prominent this time around, and even the more standard power metal melodies are that much more effective this time around. Era<\/em> is a power metal album more than anything else, and it\u2019s a good one at that, full of wickedly catchy melodies and vocal harmonies. The folk elements, especially Lethien\u2019s violin, are used to great effect, adding just the right accents to these songs and channeling that classic Elvenking sound.<\/p>\n

The songs with Jon Oliva, especially \u201cI Am the Monster,\u201d are among Era\u2019s<\/em> highlights, as are the songs where Netta Dahlberg joins Damna on vocals, but it\u2019s Damna himself who turns in the most memorable vocal performance throughout the album. Other highlights are the speedier \u201cWalking Dead,\u201d the ultra-melodic \u201cWe, Animals\u201d and the epic \u201cChronicle of a Frozen Era.\u201d \u201cPoor Little Baroness\u201d seems like a misstep, but it\u2019s the exception to the rule on this otherwise very solid album.<\/p>\n

This is exactly the kind of album Elvenking needed to release at this point in the band\u2019s career. Era isn\u2019t anything truly amazing or groundbreaking, but it is a very solid album in the Scythe\/Winter Wake mold that shows Elvenking is still capable of releasing a good folk-influenced power metal album. If you were tempted to write this band off in recent years, this album ought to be enough to remind you why you became an Elvenking fan in the first place.<\/p>\n

Genre: Power Metal<\/p>\n

Band:
\nAydan (g)
\nDamna (v)
\nRafahel (g)
\nLethien (violin)
\nSymohn (d)
\nJakob (b)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tThe Loser
\n2.\tI Am the Monster
\n3.\tMidnight Skies, Winter Sighs
\n4.\tA Song For the People
\n5.\tWe, Animals
\n6.\tThrough Wolf\u2019s Eyes
\n7.\tWalking Dead
\n8.\tForget-Me-Not
\n9.\tPoor Little Baroness
\n10.\tThe Time of Your Life
\n11.\tChronicle of a Frozen Era
\n12.\tOphale<\/p>\n

Label: AFM Records<\/p>\n

Website: http:\/\/www.elvenking.net<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 8\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – News Editor — Italian power\/folk metal band Elvenking hasn\u2019t had a very good track record lately. Their 2008 album Two Tragedy Poets (and a Caravan of Weird Figures) was a mostly […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6772],"tags":[336,5935,992,1097,334,634],"class_list":{"0":"post-21782","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-arcrvws2012","7":"tag-cd","8":"tag-jon-oliva","9":"tag-jon-olivas-pain","10":"tag-power-metal","11":"tag-review","12":"tag-savatage"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21782","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21782\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}