Artist: Shadowstrike
Title: Fables and Folklore
Genre: Symphonic Power Metal
Release Date: 22nd September 2021
Label: Avalon
Review Flash
Long Island, New York is one of the last places on God’s nice little Planet to search for Symphonic Power Metal bands to be honest but SHADOWSTRIKE prove me wrong. SHADOWSTRIKE were formed in 2021 and 2019 saw their first full-length release ‘Legends Of Human Spirit’. To be honest style-wise I must say there is not much that set’s these guys apart from European Power Metal acts, the symphonic part seems to highly rely on keyboards and kinda epic melodies. Aside from that the instrumental narrative is reminding me of DRAGONFORCE every here and there and sometimes even of BLIND GUARDIAN (the choirs in ‘Fables And Folklore’). The vocals of Matt Krais are pretty kick-ass. There is room for improvement when it comes to writing a real catchy tune without blowing it out of proportion. Sometimes there is too much stuff crammed into a song which results in a sensory overkill that does not serve the composition (less is more sometimes). All in all the different, mentioned parts alone are pretty decent but together the result is just not as good as it was probably intended. The cherry on top is that the MP3s have a bad sound with loads of grating sounds in the background, I compared it to YouTube and the original sound is way better.
Conclusion: For fans of MAJESTICA and GLORYHAMMER.
Rating: 6/ 10
