Valkyrian Music

Band: Trocaria
Album: The Dark Nears
Release date: May 2012
Genre: Melodic Metal/ Symphonic Metal
Label: Humind Records

‘The Dark Nears’ is the debut album from the American melodic metal band Trocaria. The band started life in 2007 as a solo project of Joan Palmer before becoming a two piece band thanks to the addition of vocalist Jon.

Right from the intro to the opening track ‘Gates of Hell’ it’s clear that the main emphasis here is on the symphonic keyboards and the shrieky, barking-style male vocals which remind me of Enslavement of Beauty. Speaking of which, this has similar song structures. This pattern continues with the subsequent tracks such as ‘Cursed’ and ‘Possession’ which feature more melodic keyboard tunes along with some half-hearted attempts at growling from the vocalist.

Two noteworthy exceptions are: ‘Is It Just A Shadow?’ where for the first time you actually sort to notice and appreciate the guitars; and ‘Martyr’ which sees more attempts at growling and even black metal-esque shrieks at times. It’s almost as though the band or at least the singer is still experimenting with various styles whilst recording the album.

3/5- pretty good for a debut release but there’s still some way to go.

Iza Raittila

This entry was posted on 24th May 2012 at 7:58 pm and is filed under Review. 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.