Kaledon – Altor: The King’s Blacksmith Album Review

Band: Kaledon

Album: Altor: The King’s Blacksmith

Record Label: Scarlet Records

Release Date: 23rd April 2013

Reviewed By: Mark

Tracks Listing:

1.Innocence

2. Childhood

3. Between The Hammer And The Anvil

4. My Personal Hero

5. Lilibeth

6. A New Beginning

7. Kephren

8. Screams In The Wind

9. A Dark Prison

For Fans of: Power Metal, Sonata Arctica, Stratovarius, Helloween, Gamma Ray

KALEDON are an Italian Power Metal band who formed in the nineties and this is their 7th album (the first 6 albums were all based on one story and Altor is the start of a new concept/story). Now Power metal is like marmite (and me so I’ve been told), you either really love it or absolutely hate it. A good Power Metal band should have grand songs of legends, myths, magic, battles, love, loss, despair and so on without being cheesy! The story should entice you and make you want to literally sing along and back the hero/heroes against the villains and a whole lot more emotions.

So does ‘ALTOR: THE KING’S BLACKSMITH’ live up to Power Metal greatness soaring high with the mighty dragons or is it just a damp kraken lost in the expanding sea of Power metal despair?

Well the guitar riffs are melodic and catchy and the two guitarists are great at dueling against each other and they remind me of bands such as SONATA ARCTICA and STRATOVARIUS, however when the two play speedier riffs they are more reminiscent of early HELLOWEEN and GAMMA RAY. So far so good, the keyboards are used quite well and sometimes battle it out with the two guitarists for the lead in the songs. However KALEDON‘s best feature has to be the speedy footwork and pounding of the drummer who controls the rest of the band and makes the music gallop along like the cavalry in a battle or slows it down to the march of the reinforcements. Now what makes Power metal bands are the vocalist, what with the charm and charisma they ooze and the power to tell the tale. However this is where KALEDON fail slightly as the vocals have a good range and versatility, but don’t seem to have enough power behind them. However on the more softer moments of the album and the ballad “LILIBETH” the vocals are a perfect match. However this could all be down to the vocals being a little to quiet in the mix as they can get lost a little behind the drums and guitars during some songs. Hopefully a problem they will fix on the next album?

My only problem with this release is there are no stand out choruses that makes the listener want to chant along, it is more like a novel being read at times over music. Also the story isn’t the most gripping (however this might expand on later releases), it is basically about a boy who becomes a blacksmith, marries, becomes blacksmith for the king, makes a sword for the king, gets captured (obviously fleshed out a little more and with more emotion). Just no battles or anything gripping, it is like ‘Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring’, hopefully KALEDON will build up to the big battles and a gripping story to enthrall the listener on later releases.

So ‘ALTOR: THE KING’S BLACKSMITH’ is a solid Power Metal album, nothing more or nothing less.

SCORE – 6.5 out of 10

TRACKS TO DOWNLOAD – “Between The Hammer and the Anvil”, “Lilibeth”, “Kephren”

Readers album score: {extravote 1}