"There Is A Light That Never Goes Out", But It Does Fade

Can you have a deep relationship with a band you don't particularly like all that much?

It sounds like an absurd question, but I do ask it in sincerity. Following the latest developments in the self-conflagration of Morrissey, I revisited the music of his I love in spite of his personality. During that binge, a certain song came on that sparked feelings in me the way it always has, and it caught my attention how that one song can be so important when the band is not.

The song is "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out", one of the seminal hits of The Smith's short run as one of the most important bands in the world. I will be honest and say I have never really gotten into The Smiths. I enjoy jangle pop, and I obviously have an appreciation for Morrissey, but his most famous work is hard for me to fully embrace. There are a handful of songs I will always love, but by and large I find Morrissey more interesting after he set out on his own.

In my college years, I came across someone who was a huge fan of everything to do with Morrissey. She tried to convince me of his greatness, and while that might have never quite happened, she is the reason for whatever relationship I have with his music. Oh yes, at that time I was the quarry.

I rarely think about that time anymore, mostly because it strikes me as a figment of my imagination. However, it was a connection I needed at the time, and despite the abrupt ending to the memory, I can remain thankful to have had the experience when it helped me out. The sudden end should have been obvious to me, because if this was the song that defined whatever we were, it was written in bright lights in front of my eyes the whole time.

The song is a calling for a connection to someone who can take us away from the world we know, because we don't feel like we belong there anymore. It's that misplaced angst that has made Morrissey beloved to people, because everyone who is odd is looking for someone who shares the same affectations. Just as there are cliques of popular people, so too do the outcasts filter into segmented bins. Being unusual is not a character in and of itself.

Morrissey doesn't care where the character he is singing to takes him, because there is nowhere that feels like home. He is aching to feel something, anything, and that requires something new to break through the ennui of the familiar. The chords cycle again and again with their bright, jangly tone, like how the sunrise is a mechanism shining light upon our faults and unhappiness every morning. It's the brightness of the music that makes Morrissey's tortured howl so effective, conveying to us what it feels like to be unhappy in a crowd of smiling faces. It's as if we have been put into the wrong world, and only we can see the truth for what it is.

When the chorus comes, and Morrissey sings about double-decker buses crashing into us, and ten ton trucks killing us, the sudden and violent end is seen as mercy. The privilege he states about dying next to his compatriot is understandable, because that ending does not suffer from the slide into malaise most relationships will fall prey to. Going out on a high note might have been crystalized in pop culture by George Costanza, but Morrissey's take on the subject is far more poignant.

As I think about how many times people have disappeared in a flash, I find myself contemplating whether it was better that way, as opposed to growing weary of someone, and feeling them slip away day after day. I can't say one way or the other which is the preferable option, but nothing has quite embodied that feeling quite like "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out".

That chapter of my life is defined by the feelings stirred up by the song, and it's a real and deep connection, yet my relationship with The Smiths goes only inches further. There's a mystery in how that band could be so important, and yet so ethereal, to my story.

Maybe the light was never really there, and my eyes were playing tricks on me.

Album Review: Siena Root - Revelation

I wrote not long ago about my favorite bands/albums of the new wave of vintage rock, because that is a sound I want to love far more regularly than I do. Siena Root is a prime example of both sides of that equation, as since I first heard them, they have had the wonderfully organic sound of timeless rock, but haven't had the songs to quite back it up and stick in my mind. That has been true of so many bands, and if I'm not mistaken, I found Siena Root around the time I first heard of Lykantropi. Both fell into the same quagmire, but Lykantropi rose above that by putting out a record in "Tales To Be Told" that was a unique and captivating experience. Can Siena Root follow suit? And can I write the rest of the review without sounding like Dr. Seuss?

As before, this album is a confounding mix of excitement and disappointment. Let's start with the bright side. The band has a firm grasp on production, and how to make music that sounds like it will be as relevant decades from now as it does in the moment, or even decades ago. The guitars have the perfect level of saturation where they never sound artificial, or as if they're forcing things trying to be heavy. The drums have that bit of cardboard clap you don't hear replicated by sample replacement and loads of studio polish.

Then there's Zubaida Solid, who delivers the songs with a lower voice that echoes out of her chest. When bits of reverb are put on, it feels authentic, as if she can project and ring out like that if she wants to. There's definitely some similarity to Blues Pills' Elin Larsson, and she's wonderfully suited to this kind of music. Sonically, there's nothing to fault with Siena Root.

Now we come to the not so bright side, which is yet again the songwriting. These bands who worship at the altar of classic rock tend to come out with songs that are too subtle and not melodic enough, not realizing that Led Zeppelin and those bands have had fifty years of non-stop airplay for us to absorb their songs through pure repetition alone. New bands need stronger hooks, bigger choruses, and more moments that perk my ears and draw me in.

Lots of this record sounds great, and is enjoyable enough while I'm listening to it, but once the record is done, I stop and ask myself what I was just listening to. I can't pick out any riffs and vocal lines still rattling around in my head. If I don't have something stick with me, I'm not going to feel the need to go back and listen to the record again. That's what made that Lykantropi record I mentioned earlier so special. Despite being moody and subtle, the harmonies burrowed their way into my mind. Siena Root comes closest on "Dusty Roads", but there just isn't as much rope for me to wrap my fingers around.

Every time, I hope the next record is going to be the one that makes me a believer, and almost every time I am left wondering if my expectations are out-of-whack. Maybe I'm asking for something from this music the people who love it aren't interested in, and I'm the one at fault. Whatever the case, Siena Root has once again delivered music that is timeless, but I won't have much time for.

Iron Maiden: The 'New Coke' Effect

What do we make of a reunion when it lasts longer than the original? That's an interesting question, since it plays with our perception of time, and when we cement our expectations. It's easy to become convinced the original has to be better, simply because it was first and set the stage. Or perhaps because things that burn bright and burn out must have been hotter than something that lasts. A philosophical morass, eh?

When I got into Iron Maiden, they had already reunited with Bruce Dickinson. I was too young to have experienced the band's 'classic' era as it was happening, and seeing the video for "The Wicker Man" was the first true experience I had with their music. It shouldn't be any coincidence, then, that the reunion era of Iron Maiden is the one that is the definitive version for me. All of my expectations of the band's music were set during that period, and since it has now stretched on twice as long as the 'classic' period, something in that reality makes it feel to me like this is the true Iron Maiden, and what came before was them finding their voice.

In a way, the reunion era of Iron Maiden falls into that category of music that is hard to understand; the ardent fans seem to hate it, yet the band continues to grow in popularity. It's the same phenomenon where bands like Nickelback are (or at least were) very popular, yet you could hardly find anyone willing to say they were ever a fan. I've heard many, many people criticize the reunion era relentlessly, yet Iron Maiden is bigger than ever.

Today, I want to look at the six albums they have put out in this stretch, order my thoughts about them, and then compare the 'classic' and reunion periods of the band.

Of the six albums we're talking about today, four of them are personal classics for me, and then things go into a bit of decline. I will freely admit that while there is still much I love about "The Book Of Souls" and "Senjutsu", they are both evidence of Iron Maiden's worst tendency; not knowing when to say 'when'. Neither album needs to be a double album, and not that many songs need scene-setting introductions. When everything is trying to be epic, nothing really feels epic. The number of ten-minute tracks is too much, even for someone who wants to be an apologist for this version of the band.

That leaves us with the 'core four' albums. "Brave New World" is the most acclaimed of them, but I slot it in at #4. It sounds the best of them, and the band delivers plenty of great work, but it does suffer from 'Maiden syndrome', with too many choruses made up of repetitions of one line. Hearing "your time will come", or "we're blood brothers" more than twenty times during the course of a song is not great songwriting, and no matter how much I want to pump my fists when they come on the first time, it gets tiring very fast.

"A Matter Of Life And Death" is #3, and it suffers from the same issue. There are far too many repetitions of "how long on this longest day", and "brighter than a thousand suns" for my liking, but the album wins out for its diversity. "Different World" is the best almost pop song since "Can I Play With Madness" (and makes me wonder why they don't use backing vocals more often), the pacing is broken up with the beautiful ballad "Out Of The Shadows", and perhaps the two heaviest riffs of their entire catalog appear on this record. The band was clearly experimenting, but they were doing so on the metal side, not the prog side. That often gets overlooked.

Depending on the day, I can't decide whether I like "Dance Of Death" or "The Final Frontier" more. Both albums have bad reputations, and I can see why people are put off by them. They are long, dense records, but I think buried beneath that is the best melody writing the band has ever done. Whether it's "Face In The Sand" or "Coming Home", these records have more opportunities for sing-along songs than the 80s albums, and those are heightened by the increased drama of the albums' scope. "No More Lies" is the one time the repeating chorus feels right, and what more can be said about "Paschendale" being one of their best songs ever? Even when the second half of "The Final Frontier" stretches out to an uncomfortable degree, those songs keep coming back to classic sounding Iron Maiden hooks.

Other than their length, the main criticism these albums get is their production. Yes, the albums sound raw compared to what modern metal is, but that's actually the Iron Maiden sound. If you put one of these albums on back-to-back with the 80s stuff, they don't sound much different at all. It isn't the ultra-saturated wall of sound the big-name producers will create, but that sound is an illusion anyway. Iron Maiden sounds the same on record as they do live. That means if you're criticizing the sound of the records too much, you're actually saying you don't like the sound of the band. It doesn't make sense when you put it that way, does it? I certainly appreciate not being crushed by volume that doesn't accentuate the songs.

Everything from the past is not as great as we remember. Everything from "The Number Of The Beast" through "Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son" gets talked about as if they are perfect records. They're most definitely not. They were great for the time, but songwriting in metal has evolved over time. Think about "The Trooper" and "Hallowed Be Thy Name". Neither song has a true chorus, which is something we would criticize the band endlessly for if they did it today. They're classics, though. Why? Because they came out at a time when we expected less from metal bands, perhaps.

Listen to any of those records, and you'll hear the lulls. "Invaders", "Children Of The Damned", "Bring Your Daughter To The Slaughter"... I could go on. The albums had their classics, absolutely, but they also had plenty of songs that were clearly not at that level. There's nothing wrong with admitting that.

To my ears, the reunion era of the band has less of those lulls than the 80s did. Between their decades of experience, and Bruce's development as a songwriter with his masterful solo albums "Accident Of Birth" and "The Chemical Wedding", they became better melody writers. I am a melody guy, not a riff guy, so the slower tempos have never bothered me. Iron Maiden's second act has always spoken more to me than their first, because it sounds to me like they realized they can write songs well enough to not need to speed through them and rely on pure energy. For me, that's far more impressive and interesting than seeing how many bpm you can gallop at.

The one thing you'll never hear me say, though, is that "Dance Of Death" doesn't have one of the worst covers of all time. I might defend a lot, but not that. Maybe that's where all the hate comes from....

Quick Reviews: Hayley Griffiths & First Signal

This week's two for one special is:

Hayley Griffiths - Melanie

I don't remember how I came across Karnataka during her tenure with the band, but the "Secrets Of Angels" record was a favorite of mine, and is one I still listen to today. She was the star of that show, and made me re-think a few things about how I view classically trained singers in rock and metal bands. Hearing that she was going to be making a rock record of her own was a fine bit of news. The couple of singles she had put out in recent years were both very good, and quite promising.

Now that we have the whole record, the results both exceed and fall short of those expectations. On the plus side, Hayley's voice still sounds amazing, and she generally has songs that fit into the same dramatic variety I discovered her singing. It's heavier than Karnataka was, which might mute a bit of the orchestration, but it's a fitting backdrop for her. The songs are also solid, and the melodies are mostly engaging and memorable. I think my issue is mostly that the record is relatively short, so when there is a song that doesn't speak as much to me, it stands out more. And considering that those two singles I mentioned aren't included on the record, it seems like an obvious fix to add them to the track listing could have made this even better. It's an enjoyable record, for sure, and I'm glad to hear Hayley again, but it could use just a little more juice.

First Signal - Face Your Fears

The second album in two years from this project sees Harry Hess collect another group of melodic rock songs from a cadre of writers. This time, I find the songs more engaging and more memorable than last time. From start to finish, it's a highly enjoyable set of songs that does what melodic rock is supposed to do, capped off by Harry's strong vocals. Just on that basis, it's an easy album to recommend.

What I can't escape is the thought that I would rather have a new Harem Scarem record, since their last two have far exceeded anything First Signal has done. Knowing these are songs Harry has collected, I get no sense of him as an artist from this album. His work on the Harem Scarem records is so good, this feels rather milquetoast by comparison. It's people writing trying to sound like that, rather than the real thing. And let's not forget how silly the repeated lyric, "shoot the bullet straight" is. Bullets can't curve (other than gravity's pull, which isn't what it means), so I'm spending the entire song wondering why they built the lyric around something impossible. As much as I laughed at the Harem Scarem lyric about Sir Issac Newton, at least it didn't cause cognitive dissonance.

But as a shut-your-brain-off record, this is definitely fine.

Singles Roundup: Fall Out Boy, Redemption, A Light Divided, & Jax Hollow

Let's see what these new songs have in store for us today.

Fall Out Boy - Heartbreak Feels So Good

After the first single from the upcoming album felt like a return to a glory age, this song reminds us that every nostalgia trip is a bit of an illusion. This song is the so-called bridge between the band's two eras, which is what Patrick Stump envisions the album as being. It doesn't take things as far in the pop/electronic direction as the band went, but it does pull us away from the guitar-driven emo I love so much. That musical bed in the verses isn't a sound I really enjoy, and the lack of power means the chorus doesn't have the same bite when it comes in. This is a very tame song, albeit one with a very pleasant melody. It's decent stuff, but I'm expecting more from them than merely being ok.

Redemption - Seven Minutes From Sunset

Have you ever had a sense of musical deja vu, where you sweat you've heard a new song before? That's what I was getting from this second Redemption single. Things were going along fine, albeit slow in getting to the point, but when we finally got to the chorus, oh man. Tom didn't even get to the end of the first line before I was having that odd sensation, and by the time the song was over, I realized what I was thinking. The song's immediate impression was exactly the same as "Damaged", one of the singles from "The Art Of Loss". After that, it was hard to think of the song in any other context. I keep hearing the previous song, and I like that one a lot better.

A Light Divided - Inhale/Exhale

There is a right way and a wrong way to experiment with your sound. A Light Divided show us the right way, using their latest single as a vehicle to play with electronics and new sounds, but doing so as a way to provide extra dynamics for when the chorus kicks in with all the power and hook as ever before. The band has the ability to play into the aggressive nature of Jaycee's voice, riding the edge between singing a sweet melody and shouting for our attention. She has mine, for sure. I've regularly gone back to their "Choose Your Own Adventure" album, and have been eagerly waiting for more since the "Radio Silence" single. Now that it's here, the waiting has been worth it. 

Jax Hollow - Wolf In Sheepskin

Can you ever hide who you truly are? Wearing a costume might be easy, and we can put on affects for a while, but in time it seems inevitable we will reveal ourselves as actors. Jax Hollow's new chapter begins with this realization, asking if she is too much to handle. That is an interesting question, because like the titular metaphor, the song is playing a role. With a slow bluesy cadence, the luscious guitar tone is allowed to reverberate through the mix, letting the note choices ring. When the key section to the song arrives, the harmonies ditch the blues for an almost 60s pop vibe, and Jax's vocal strains with an echo of Sheryl Crow. But why the disguise? The wolf tells us she is "first step hedonism", but the guitar never rips into a fiery solo to bear its teeth. That will have to wait until after we've been lured in.

Quick Reviews: Wig Wam & Khymera

Two more albums this week. Are they melodic goodness?

Wig Wam - Out Of The Dark

The previous Wig Wam album was pretty good, but I didn't enjoy it as much as the Dracula album Trond Holter had made, nor the Ammunition album Ale made with Erik Martensson. Perhaps the reason for that can be found judging a book by its cover, as the cartoon art the album comes with is ripped right from the 80s, as is much of the ethos of this record. When "Ghosting You" starts talking about 'a pile of cocaine', I'm transported back to the worst days of rock, when it seemed like every song was about assholes being asshole, and being celebrated for the fact.

I think there's something interesting to be done with the more metallic guitar tone used here, and the band can definitely write a hook, but the pervasive air of the 80s puts me off. We're thirty-three years past the expiration of that decade, and yet it continues to be inescapable. I don't recall very much 50s revivalism during my youth, so the inability for pop culture to move on is a fascinating push to end evolution.

Look, this kind of record is only going to be able to go so far with me. That's how far it goes, and no more. It's fine, but nothing I'm ever going to connect with.

Khymera - Hold Your Ground

I'm not sure exactly what it is about AOR, but pretty much every time I listen to anything I get recommended as being amazing, it comes across sounding entirely flat. There's something about the sweet and soothing sound of the genre that doesn't enable the melodies to ever have the 'hook factor' I'm looking for. Khymera falls into that same category, even though I can hear why they should have more appeal.

There are a couple of songs in the middle of the record, "Sail On Forever" and "Our Love Is Killing Me", where the melodies have the contours of something I know I should like. And yet, listening to them, they hit me like a pillow. That doesn't quite make sense, but it does fit in with my old belief that neither volume, tuning, nor distortion make something heavy on their own. That comes down to how something is performed, and that might be the case here as well. The music is performed in a way to be soft and melodic, which actually does the opposite.

That means once again, Khymera's music is pleasant enough, but toothless. AOR continues to confound me, and the first song I ever heard from the band remains a fluke that so far has convinced me to give them more chances than I perhaps should. Maybe I've learned my lesson this time.

Album Review: Motive Black - Auburn

In all my time as a critic, I do believe this album has had the longest gestational period. As an outside observer, I don't understand that at all. The band put out a first single almost three years ago that I absolutely loved. Then they disappeared in the midst of the pandemic for over a year, and when they did come back it was with a drip of singles that still didn't give us a date when the album was going to come along. So between the time Motive Black first made an impression, and now that I'm listening to their first album, so much life and music has happened that any enthusiasm I might have had has long since died out.

There is building hype, and there is dragging things out too far. With the successive singles getting less interesting as they came along, the time in between has been too much. At least for me. But nevertheless, I will give the album a chance, because I still hope that one song isn't everything they have to offer.

Before getting to the music, I was given cause for concern. The press release says the album features songs reworked by this group of musicians from singer Elana Justin's former band. If it has taken this long, and they didn't even have to write the entire album from scratch, it is not an encouraging sign.

"Broken" is still as good here as it ever was, but it winds up being a bit of an outlier on the record. "Lift Me Up" opens things off with some guest harsh vocals that portend something heavier and harder, and then "Bloodsport" veers into almost pop-punk territory with the way the chorus feels. Things swing right around again on "Caged", which has some of the heaviest riffs, and then an ethereal bridge that is trying to bring an almost spacey element into play. With the one syllable at a time chorus that comes along with it, the song is an odd little mashup of things I'm not sure work together.

But I think the biggest takeaway I have listening to the album is that the band's idea of what they want to be doesn't mesh with their talent. Elana has a good voice, but she doesn't have the right tone or power for the heavier sections of the record. When the songs tilt into their more traditional radio rock forms, as on the chorus of "Purge", everything falls into place. But when Elana is straining to sound as heavy as the guitars want to be, the best part of her vocal range gets swallowed up. Some of these might be good songs, but they don't all fit her voice as they should.

Look at "Cellophane" as an example. The song trades melody for a half-scream approach, and I don't think it works in the slightest. The song lacks a hook, and Elana's voice is far better suited for gritty singing than it is screaming. It's four minutes of trying to resist the urge to hit the 'skip' button. I do not always succeed.

So after three years, what we are given is an album with a few really good songs, and a lot of questionable decisions. In all this time, they weren't able to figure out what works best for them and tailor the songs to those strengths. Instead, we get an album that gets caught trying to be heavier than it should be, and the hooks suffer for it. I almost always prefer albums to singles, but this is one of those rare cases where I have to say I was happier listening to Motive Black one song at a time. They have moments of greatness, but they can't sustain it over a full-length.

Album Review: Delain - Dark Waters

Lineup changes are a tough thing. There are times when a new band member is never going to be able to replace the memory of their predecessor, no matter how talented they might be. Fans get attached to their favorites, and when a band's identity becomes synonymous with that person, moving on isn't easy. On the other hand, when there is a band you have never fully been won over by, and they have a major change, there's an opportunity for a second chance, and perhaps that connection will finally be made. For every Blaze Bayley, we need to remember Bruce Dickinson was once in the same boat.

Delain is one of those bands that has always been on the periphery, where for whatever reason I never got much into their music. Charlotte Wessels is a very talented singer, and the band was good at what they did, but the music didn't speak to me. Will that change now that the lineup has been shuffled?

On the surface, the answer is actually 'yes'. Delain's songwriting on this record is concise and sticky, delivering big choruses that embody the scope of symphonic metal. They have done well to write songs that are beautiful and powerful, while feeling like pop songs spreading their wings to the sun.

New singer Diana Leah is more than capable, with a soft and classical tone when the music is gentle, and rock power when she needs to pump up the choruses. I will never claim to have enough experience to compare her to her predecessor, so all I will say is that she fits right in with what this incarnation of Delain is trying to do.

Songs like "Beneath" and "Moth To A Flame" boast bouncing pop hooks that will certainly get audiences singing along. That rousing quality is one of the best things metal has to offer, when it's done right, and Delain gets it right quite a bit on this record. Of course, it seems like you can't have one of these records without a song like "The Quest And The Curse" throwing in harsh male vocals for some reason. I don't know why so many musicians want their band to essentially cosplay as Beauty And The Beast, but it makes for the least interesting track on the album. While all the others are focused on melodies and hooks, the gruff vocals tread water, which gets you nowhere.

"Moth To A Flame", in particular, is as good a pop song as I've heard in a long time. It trends the furthest in that direction of anything on the record, which is a bit of a shame. I think it proves that if Delain wanted to go even further with that side of their personality, it would be ridiculously fun. Then again, leaving it to stand alone as an infectious little gem makes it stand out as one of the best songs I've heard so far this year.

Only time will tell if Delain has finally made a record that will stay with me, but it sounds like they've come closer than ever with this one. I'm sure it will be a tough album for people who were attached to the previous lineup, but I can only talk from my perspective. For me, Delain has an obvious winner of an album on their hands, which sounds like the start of an exciting new chapter.

EP Review: Dream State - Untethered

For some of us, a band's personality is often intertwined with their singer. It's the human voice that conveys the most emotion, that tells the stories, and that can't be replicated by a producer manning the boards. Whatever style of music you pick, you can find the gear to replicate the sound of the guitars and drums, but finding a singer who can evoke the same feelings from the audience is something far harder, if not impossible.

Dream State is going through that process here, as this EP is the introduction of a new lineup. CJ's singing and screaming, complete with hints of her English accent, were such an integral part of their sound, I must confess to being worried what the future of the band was going to be. Their "Recovery" EP and "Primrose Path" album were both fantastic, but it wasn't the instrumental parts that won me over the most.

This new EP is both reassuring, and disappointing. Let's start with the good side first.

Dream State comes out of the gates in this new era hitting hard. Their post-hardcore is still heavy and aggressive, with pulsing rhythms full of energy. The writing is tight, and new vocalist Jessie Powell does an admirable job on both fronts. The songs are still catchy bangers that get better the more you listen to them. They are able to perfectly balance their hardcore tendencies with more melodic parts, both challenging and satisfying those of us who don't share their same roots.

But for every satisfaction there is a disappointment. Or two of them, in this case. One of those being that this is just a three-song EP, which even for this kind of release doesn't feel like enough. To reintroduce the band, this bite-size offering is barely bite-sized. The other disappointment is that while Jessie is indeed a very good vocalist, she isn't CJ. The band is cleaner and more polished than ever, and it's the rough edges I find myself missing the most. There was something charming about their previous sound, where it felt like a reflection of the mental battles the songs were addressing.

This EP is, oddly, too perfect. The playing, the production, and the vocals are nearly flawless, but because of that they don't have as much feeling in them. At least not to my ears. So while Dream State shows they have plenty of life left in them, and they're going to keep making good music, I'm going to have to wait to see if that spark returns. I miss it.

Album Review: Rexoria - Imperial Dawn

What exactly is an album? It's something we don't necessarily have to think about, since these days we consume our music in every which way. It really doesn't matter what we call music when we're going to Spotify and hitting the play button. But for the purposes of organizing our thoughts, I still like to have categories to place things in, so I'm not trying to compare apple to oranges. It isn't a perfect system, but I definitely think there is more room for leeway if we're talking about an album versus an EP. If you choose to only give us a small dose, it had better be fantastic. That's my take, at least.

That came to mind because as I sat down to listen to Rexoria's new album, the ten tracks feature only one that reaches the four-minute mark, meaning the album comes in at a very tight and tidy running time. There are great albums that clock in somewhere in the thirty-odd minute range, but when albums get to be too short, they start to feel more like long EPs, and I'm less forgiving if there is a song or two that doesn't measure up.

Rexoria doesn't give us much of an opportunity for a lull to occur, as these songs are full-on all the way through. There is almost no let-up, with the band roaring from start to finish. Their power metal fills every corner of the sonic space with guitars and keys, and yet Frida Ohlin's vocals are still able to rise above it all. Her voice has just the right amount of grit and bite to compete with the music. There are no compromises made to their rocking nature.

That does have a downside, though. Even though the record is short, I was finding myself wanting some more dynamics to the mix. With the guitars and keyboards as loud and omnipresent as they are, there isn't really any space in the compositions to let your ears breathe. The record is a wall of sound pretty much non-stop, and maybe it's just that I've been listening to less metal in recent times, but I find it harder and harder to handle records that are nothing but loud.

In better news, the band writes some really good songs. The combination of "Fading Rose" and "Light Up The Sky" in the middle of the record is glorious stuff, and reminds me of how power metal is what got me into a lot of heavier stuff twenty years ago. Sometimes, there's nothing better than metal that wants to have a little bit of fun. That's what Rexoria does best, and there isn't a time when they falter in that regard.

The more I listened to the record, the more the songs burrowed into my head. It didn't take long before this album was firmly cemented as a fantastic sing-along, with every chorus rousing enough to stir a silent nod-along when polite company wouldn't be expecting anything more aggressive. There is accessible music, and then there is memorable music. Rexoria not only writes melodic power metal, but the kind with hooks that don't let go. The big names of the genre haven't been able to do it this well in many years.

So what we have in "Imperial Dawn" is a super-concentrated dose of power metal. It might come on a bit strong, but the flavor is right. The band delivers good songs, great vocals, and a fun time. Power metal is a stagnant genre, but Rexoria is doing it well enough none of that matters.