Harmonize: Warrior In The Night (Self Released) [Lucas Tuckwood]
Today did descend upon me an armour-clad fellow brandishing a ridiculously long sword, his hair blowing in the wind. Shining in his hand was…. a CD. Warrior In The Night by Harmonize to be specific, lo and behold it is some wonderful power metal. Hailing from Cyprus, these obscure headbangers have been at the grindstone since 2012, keeping their swords sharp, and keeping that classic power metal spirit going, and managing to add a certain amount of spice to the age-old formula.
The first several tracks are a standard power affair- you get a hefty dose of powerful, mid-tempo riffage, combined with some nice harmonising vocals. The songs deal in the fantastical, telling tales of warriors battling the evil forces of darkness- you get track names like Never Back Down, which is quite emblematic of this genre.
However, one would be doing themselves a disservice to dismiss this album as nothing but power metal cheese, as there’s actually a fair bit of experimentation on display here. Later tracks include growled, rasped vocals on top of the clean ones, which add a darker tinge to the songs, as if showing that the darkness is corrupting the Warrior depicted on the cover. The tempos begin to slow, the riffs get a little more sombre, and a heck of a lot heavier, especially the track Crawling Among Shadows. It’s an interesting thematic choice, and I find it adds a lot of character to this album, and keeps it from falling in line with others of this genre.
The spoken word outro also contributes to this album’s rather in-depth lore. In all, I was quite surprised by the twist of Cain this album manages to pull, and I think it’s worth a listen just for it alone. If you’re inclined towards power metal, I would not hesitate to recommend this album.
9/10
(musipediaofmetal.blogspot.com)
