Valkyrian Music

Band: Burning Shadows
Album: Gather, Darkness!
Release date: June 2012
Genre: Heavy Metal / Power Metal
Label: Self-released

‘Gather, Darkness!’ is the second full-length release from the American power metal band Burning Darkness. It is the follow up to the 2010 EP ‘Oathbreaker’ and it is a concept album inspired by the science fiction novel of the same name by Fritz Leiber.

The symphonic, orchestral intro to the instrumental ‘Overture: Hymn to Sathanas’ reminds me of the opening credits to a movie. It’s only when the guitars kick in at the start of ‘A Thousand Lies: A New Dark Age’ that you’re reminded of the fact that this is still a metal album. The singer sounds he’s reciting a story rather than singing; then again this is based on a book afterall so maybe this was the idea…

The guitar work is good and combined with the Iron Maiden / Iced Earth-style vocals it produces some pleasant sounding results, such as the catchy chorus and guitar solos in ‘A Thousand Lies: Onward’. Now I’m guessing, based on the names of the tracks, that several of them are connected to each other – for instance ‘To Ruin & Divide: The Witchmark’ sounds like the start of a four-part chapter which ends with the power metal ballad ‘To Ruin & Divide: Kingdoms Fall’. In this particular sequence ‘To Ruin & Divide: Man From Myth’ is the most memorable due to its skillfully executed guitar riffs and atmospheric moments.

Other noteworthy tracks include the slow, acoustic-sounding ‘Breaking the Sanctuary: Abandonment’ which proves that the band know how to maintain the right balance between fast, catchy power metal and epic power ballads and the catchy finale that is ‘Breaking the Sanctuary: The Infamous Dawn’.

3.5/5

Iza Raittila

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This entry was posted on 15th May 2012 at 7:43 pm and is filed under Review with tags Gather Darkness!, Heavy metal music, Iced Earth, Iron Maiden, Power Metal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.