{"id":35487,"date":"2013-12-12T07:30:45","date_gmt":"2013-12-12T12:30:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=35487"},"modified":"2014-02-08T08:39:26","modified_gmt":"2014-02-08T13:39:26","slug":"javelin-fragments-of-the-inner-shadow-cd-review-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2013\/javelin-fragments-of-the-inner-shadow-cd-review-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Javelin | Fragments of the Inner Shadow<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"JavelinFragments of the Inner Shadow<\/em> is the full-length debut album from German progressive\/power metal band Javelin, but unlike a lot of bands making their debut these days, this band has been around since 1982. Despite releasing a pair of EPs (1997\u2019s Seasons of Grey<\/em> and 2009\u2019s Dark Broken Land<\/em>), they\u2019re only now delivering a proper album.<\/p>\n

You figure a band that\u2019s been kicking around since 1982 would sound very old school, and given their country it\u2019s fair to expect Javelin to sound like Accept or Running Wild. Instead, the band delivers a very strong blend of progressive and power metal that harkens back to the early 2000s glory days of the prog\/power scene. They have driving, headbanging rhythms, killer twin lead guitar work, soaring powerful vocals, and while the album is melodic, it\u2019s got plenty of crunch and heaviness and a dark atmosphere overall. Think Brainstorm and Tad Morose (with maybe a shot of Icarus Witch and Twisted Tower Dire) rather than the upbeat, sing-songy stuff the German power metal scene is so well known for.<\/p>\n

Fragments of the Inner Shadow<\/em> is a very strong album overall, and one that works best as a larger whole. Still, there are some songs that stand out, like the heavy, intense \u201cThe Arrival\u201d and the hard charging \u201cFalling,\u201d with it\u2019s shout-along chorus that sounds like it\u2019s straight off a Brainstorm album. The slower song (not quite a ballad, but close) \u201cHealing\u201d gives the album a dramatic, epic flair that works very well. Javelin closes out the album with re-recordings of the title tracks from their two EP releases, which gives you an idea of how they\u2019ve progressed.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s fitting that Javelin\u2019s debut arrives on the Pure Underground label, because Fragments of the Inner Shadow is the very definition of an underground gem. This is a really nicely executed slab of progressive\/power metal that\u2019s on par with much of what the \u201cname\u201d bands in the scene have released lately. If you like your power metal on the heavy side, Javelin is a band that is well worth discovering. Hopefully their follow-up won\u2019t be quite as long in the making.<\/p>\n

Genre: Power Metal, Progressive Metal<\/p>\n

Band:
\nAndreas Waldow (g)
\nCarsten Maiwald (g)
\nCarsten Hille (v)
\nVolker Scholz (b)
\nSascha Sauer (d)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\nHelp Us
\nThe Arrival
\nThe Cenotaph
\nBirth of a Plague
\nDown
\nHealing
\nFalling
\nLie To Me
\nCaptured Under Sand
\nNow That I Know
\nCloser to the Pain
\nDark Broken Land
\nSeason of Grey<\/p>\n

Label: Pure Steel, Pure Underground<\/p>\n

Website: www.facebook.com\/JavelinMetal
\n<\/a>
\nHardrock Haven rating: 8.5\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – Senior Columnist\/News Editor — Fragments of the Inner Shadow is the full-length debut album from German progressive\/power metal band Javelin, but unlike a lot of bands making their debut these days, […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":35490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8704],"tags":[2317,8468,8467,1097,1098,2791,8469],"class_list":{"0":"post-35487","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2013","8":"tag-cd-review","9":"tag-fragments-of-the-inner-shadow","10":"tag-javelin","11":"tag-power-metal","12":"tag-progressive-metal","13":"tag-pure-steel","14":"tag-pure-underground"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35487","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=35487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}