HERO
Fires of Beltain
self released 2010

(Posted Image)

Ok these guys are obviously massive pranksters or genuinely insane. Why? Well when you see the band name and the heroically cheesy album cover (which looks pretty damn cool I must admit), you immediately think of epic battle power metal or some kind of Scandi Viking "Hero" metal band. Alas once you press play the music that comes forth from the speakers is about as far from what you would expect judging by the album cover.

The promo sheet mentions aspects of classic rock and soaring 70s epic platitudes and as the album progresses you can sort of see where they are coming from as the musical pastiches develop. However the quality of the album and music is so tame and the production so lacklustre that I never once began to see what they were trying to achieve on this release. Ok this may sound like I am not giving the music a chance but the problem is that a soft rock album is not what I was expecting to be honest. I am a fairly open minded metal head nevertheless and I like a wide range of music but having listened to this record twice now I am really struggling to come up with any redeeming features.

Opener 'Hey Hey Hey' has something in the way of speed and rhythm and a decent solo but to me sounds more like a pop rock song than a classic epic rock which the band aspires to. Delving further into the album reveals no further aspects of delight or glee for a heavy metal fan in any way shape or form. Songs meander along with even less in the way of weight or power and steer further into softer territories, almost giving off a Coldplay feel to the songs at times. The playing in general is acceptable and I cannot deny they have musical talent, however the lack of memorable tunes holds the album back tremendously unfortunately. The vocals are also without edge and I would say pretty apt for the powerless music, but that doesn't really make the album any more listenable for me.

Towards the end of the album a few decent guitar licks surface which are reasonable but personally speaking, I can live without ever having to listen to ever again. This band aimed very high with this release and I can imagine a different reviewer gaining a great deal more from this album than I did. The songs are often quite drawn out with varying sounds and structures with a few epic melodies, but unfortunately I cannot say I really enjoyed a single moment on this disk.

© Pirage Forsi
Rating *1/2 (1.5/5.0)

heromusic.ca