Top 11 Albums of the Year - D.M's List

As the years go by and I've been doing this list for some, oh, I don't know, decade and a half or whatever, it seems to me that each list may be increasingly influenced by where I am in my life - which is to say more accurately, what do I feel like hearing?  Which is to say, this comes with an admission: the list that follows may simply be my personal best albums list.  Okay, let me not insult you - it's obvious that this is my list, my name is on the damn thing.  What I mean is that this may be MY list - it may not be the best albums if we're judging on technical prowess or compositional acuity.  It may be simply a list of albums that I enjoyed the most this year.  And so be it.

Okay, a brief review of the rules:
- Must be an original studio composition in 2024
- No re-releases
- No Greatest Hits or compilations of any kind
- No live albums

Without further preamble - 

HONORABLE MENTION – While She Sleeps – Self Hell

I, for one, wasn’t sure rap metal would ever make a comeback.  Nor was I really sure that it should.  And maybe it still hasn’t.  But there’s a couple artists this year that tried to put a toe back in that formerly pristine but now dirtied and forgotten pool.  While She Sleeps was one of them. (Quick shout-out to Ihsahn’s self-titled album for narrowly missing out here.)

EP OF THE YEAR:  Alestorm – Voyage of the Dead Marauder EP

You know how some people are ‘small doses’ people?  I think Alestorm is a ‘small doses’ band for me.  And this was the perfect dose.  As ever with Alestorm, the comedy is acerbic and not for the faint of heart, but that does nothing to reduce its hilarity.  And the title track?  As legit a song as you can imagine.

11 – Reliqa – Secrets of the Future

Not all that dissimilar from While She Sleeps in concept, but this is the better execution.  The band is tight and in control and they know the sound they’re going for, even as it crosses several aesthetic and sonic boundaries.  

10 – Black Note Graffiti – Resist the Divide

Not a single song over 3:45, and punctuated by short, minimalist riffs.  There’s something about the mechanics of this album that’s kind of hypnotic.  Think Static-X, but dial way back on the gain and slow the tempo down to half speed.  But it’s similar in that the constructions are sparse, and I mean that as a compliment.  You can hear every part being played clearly, and no song overstays its welcome.  A better comparison – like a slightly   less-screamy, more deliberate Hellfreaks.

9 – Dungeon Crawl – Maze Controller

I kinda hate how much I like this album, because it is so unapologetically nerdy and based around late nights mainlining caffeine while you watch your graph-paper hero lose hit points because of a bad luck dice roll.  (And yes, I hate it because I’ve been there.)  When you strip that way, thought, there’s a really good, authentic thrash album underneath, and as I look back, I seem to have a place for that on my list every year (last year was Hellevate’s “The Purpose Is Cruelty” EP.)  The guitar work here is fun, the lyrics are appropriately absurd, the whole thing just feels right.

8 – Sundrifter – An Earlier Time

After Sundrifter released the very good “Visitations” back in whatever-the-hell year it was, I remember thinking to myself “damn, if those guys could just focus this a little and keep it within the margins, they’d really make something great.”  Well, now we have “An Earlier Time,” and it’s exactly the apex of Sundrifter could and should be.  It’s all the same cosmic wanderings of a wayward probe, but it’s snappier, more confident, and all around more listenable, while losing none of the signature fuzzy guitar tone.

7 – Dampf – No Angels Alive

Third year in a row.  Third year in a row that some electronic artist cracks my year end album list, by crossing over and blurring the line into metal.  Now, I’m giving myself a little grace here, because this is the second time that the artist has been Dampf, which means this is more than just a coincidence.  Dampf may not write the most technically challenging metal, but there is no question that there’s an understanding of what goes into composing a catchy hit.  There’s something about these songs that hooks you immediately.

6 – Powerwolf – Wake Up the Wicked

Color me a little surprised.  I’ve long been a Powerwolf partisan, but I freely admit that the band had a long run of making a great album followed by a mediocre one.  So imagine my shock when this album comes out comparatively on the heels of last year's “Interludium,” and still bangs with a new bunch of massive songs that only Powerwolf could have written.

5 – Powerman 5000 – Abandon Ship

Am I the only person in the world who has this as a top five album from 2024?  Probably.  And is some of that no doubt because of my personal nostalgia? Possibly.  But this is my list, so tough rocks.  I’m just going to come out and say it – PM5K will never again be the band that wrote “Tonight the Stars Revolt!” That age has passed.  But they also don’t have to be that band again.  After however many years wandering in the desert, the comeback that seemingly began with “Builders of the Future” some ten years ago is real and tangible and authentic.  And this album is a ton of fun.

4 – Dead Poet Society – Fission

One of the most unique bands going.  Minimalist beats, heavy rhythms, guitar tone not heard since Soundgarden’s “4th of July”…this is a heady mix of styles and colors, and it takes a steady hand to be able to balance all of those into music that’s even listenable, let alone good.  Extra props for “Hurt,” which is probably my Song of the Year…as someone who is also in a non-traditional career (yes, I have a job, and no, it’s not writing about music,) that tune hits close to home sometimes.

**It merits mention, there’s a gap here.  These albums are all great, but the next three were on a level all their own in 2024.**

3 – Transit Method – Othervoid

The sensibilities of Rush, but paired with the beats and rhythms of a punk band?  Hell yeah, sign me up for all of that.  It’s not every year that a band new to me crosses my (virtual) desk and absolutely pins my attention to the wall until I’ve heard the whole thing.  Can’t even remember who the last one would have been.  The Hawkins?  Red Eleven?  Doesn’t matter.  That’s how I felt listening to Transit Method.  And I hope you do, too.

2 – The Warning – Keep Me Fed

Ugh, I went back and forth on this a hundred and fifty times.  I even complained to my compatriot Chris about it.  I haven’t had this much trouble deciding between two albums for #1 since 2014, when I battled internally for a week over Red Eleven’s “Round II” and Destrage’s “Are You Kidding Me? No.” (I picked Red Eleven then, and I stand by it…about half the time.)  I can’t understand why the Warning haven’t conquered the world yet.  The talent, the songs, the aesthetic…this band has everything you want in a world-wide hero rock group.  It must only be the fallow period for rock fandom that we find ourselves in that prevents them from ascending.  Although, every time I see them, it’s in a slightly larger venue…In the meantime, this is certainly the album I spent the most time with this year, but it did ultimately fall short to…

1 – Combichrist – CMBCRST

Some years ago, Combichrist took flak from their fans for gradually moving away from a pure industrial style, incorporating more and more metal elements.  I personally think it’s the best decision the band ever made, as every album since that point (perhaps beginning with the DmC soundtrack?) has been better than the previous, culminating in this masterpiece of doom, gloom and as KMFDM coined the term, the ‘ultra-heavy beat.’  Some of the best riffs of the year were recorded for this album.  What puts it ahead of The Warning at #2?  The Warning, for all their greatness, worked with more professional songwriters.  And as Chris has so passionately explained on our very pages, there’s no sin in that, none at all.  But when you’re deciding between masterpieces, that extra little degree of authenticity for Combichrist matters.

Album Review: Dampf - "No Angels Alive"

 

I hate Dampf.  Which is to say, I love Dampf, and I hate how much I love them.  (I promise this is the only part of this review which is about me.)

There are a lot of metal bands on the planet Earth.  More than can be named or reasonably counted, never mind actually listened to or documented.  But the number is high.  

And the sad truth is that many (trying not to say “most”) of them suck.  They’re either derivative or boring or uninventive, or their suffer some manner of ideological problem, like thinking that the only pure music is recorded live in a hotel hallway in downtown Dresden, Germany.  More often than we’d like to admit, metal devolves into a sound that is (sometimes literally,) like banging two potted plants together and recording the aftermath.

Enter Dampf.  A band started kinda on a whim when a friend of Swedish electronic dance artist E-Type dared him to write a metal album.  That was “The Arrival,” and it was so good and so catchy and so well constructed, that it necessitated a second album, and here we are with “No Angels Alive.” And it is just as well executed and fun to listen to as its predecessor.  

Which, frankly, the metal community should be embarrassed at the fact that for all their number, this electronic guy can so easily traipse into the midst of the genre and absolutely nail metal in a way that so few understand.

It’s clear that A-TRON (electronic stage name E-Type) has a blueprint for his metal songs, and then like a housing development from the ‘80s, has come up with a dozen variations of the basic blueprint.  Which is genius when foraying into territory that doesn’t feel like your home base.  

The plan goes something like this – huge, layered, singalong chorus, consistent, constant rhythm, high contrast melody, poignant guitar solo, upbeat inflections, high beats per minute in the verses.  The sliders adjust from track to track – a little more electronic here, a little more harsh vocal there, a little slower here, a little heavier there, and in the end, you have ten songs that all share the same blood, but all feel a little different.

And it’s damn near perfect.  “Masquerade,” the album’s prominent single, might be the catchiest song I’ve heard this year, just as “From the E-Ternity” was on the band’s debut album.

I will say this – “No Angels Alive” is a little more power-ballad-y than “The Arrival” was, and that colors the experience depending on your opinion of power ballads.  That doesn’t mean those songs are lesser in construction; “Heart of Darkness” is a fun listen that strikes a good balance between metal roots and cinematic melodrama.

Even if you’re not a fan of that though, there’s still plenty here to like, particularly as Dampf really reaches and spreads their wings for the power metal opus of “Mists of Avalon (Don’t Wake Me Up).”

Either way, it remains joyously embarrassing at how easily Dampf has arrived on the scene and smoked most of their contemporaries, especially considering how seriously metal takes itself.  This is too much fun to be ignored or discarded for so petty a reason as spite.

Album Review: Powerwolf - "Wake Up The Wicked"

Power metal is a repetitive genre.  Has been for at least twenty years now.  There are a limited number of tropes a power metal band can adopt and still be called a power metal band, and you can probably tick off all of them in your head as you read this.  A small collection of bands have gotten extra mileage out of certain themes, like pirate metal or viking metal or Varangian metal, but in many cases those are just convenient window dressing for what, at its core, remains just a permutation of power metal.

And then there’s Powerwolf.  Listing their talents and abilities on paper, there’s nothing that seems like it should so easily separate them from the sluggish quagmire of power metal below them, but much like sports, bands don’t play on paper.  Powerwolf is simply better than all of their contemporaries; they’ve become a historical tentpole of the genre.

That doesn’t mean that they’re free from sins of their own – recent works have seen the bombastic Germans dip their toe in the pirate metal theme as well, albeit with some laudable success.  And not all their albums are classics – they have a 1:1 ratio in their history of great album to ‘meh’ album.  When Powerwolf hits right, though, there’s nobody who can hold a flame to them in their chosen splinter.

The band’s new album, “Wake Up the Wicked,” takes a couple listens to open up; it’s not as clearly attention-grabbing as its predecessor “Interludium” was, but with just a little patience, this record becomes the most versatile Powerwolf album to date.

Now, that doesn’t mean that the band is going to suddenly write dance bangers or bring down the house with cacophonous death metal pounding – everything on “Wake Up the Wicked” still sounds unmistakably like Powerwolf, but they’ve subtly introduced a few new elements that listeners haven’t heard from them before.

Skip down to “Heretic Hunters” for the first evidence – the beat and the riff belong on any number of Powerwolf records, but there’s a thin strand of synth in there, vaguely reminiscent of hurdy-gurdy music that’s new, and then Attila Dorn, forever the rafter-shaking voice of the genre, bites his lyrics off, rather than draw them out in his usual idiom.  Throw in a surprisingly ugly (in a good way,) breakdown (by Powerwolf standards,) and you’ve crafted a unique PW experience.

Starting with the title track, there’s a quartet of songs that marks “Wake Up the Wicked” as an accomplished Powerwolf album, fit to share the shelf with those that have come before (and better than some.)  The title track itself is just another classic in the long line of Powerwolf crowd pleasers – is it all that special weighed against the others?  Nah.  But it’s just as good, and will rile up crowds with its energy and singalong chorus just as well as any.

Then it gets interesting.  “Joan of Arc” is so incredibly reminiscent of the cadence of the previous album’s “Sainted by the Storm,” that I did a double-take.  But, as they say in my business, repeat your best stuff, you never know when someone is seeing it for the first time.

Then there’s a thrash song!  Powerwolf hasn’t written a song like “Thunderpriest” since “Dead Boys Don’t Cry” in the previous decade.  The song is all energy and power and relentlessness, for the entire duration of three-minutes and change.  This is followed by “We Don’t Wanna Be No Saints,” which starts with a children’s chorus ripped straight from “The Wall,” and then careens into a pop-metal beat where every moment is singable and accessible.

Powerwolf is separated from power metal by being so good at all the intangibles of songwriting – pace, timing, selection, cadence, sense of the moment.  Moreover, there’s no fat on the bones of “Wake Up the Wicked:” only one song goes past four minutes, and it does so by a paltry four seconds.  Powerwolf seems to be the only power metal band working who remembers that fathers of the genre Iron Maiden started out with punk rock roots.  This album is direct, to the point, and executed with experience and skill.

Album Review: Ryujin - "Ryujin"

 

Power metal feels in so many ways like a dead genre.  Which is not to say that the genre bears no more fruit or lacks in popularity, but simply that the genre feels like it’s at the end of its evolutionary cycle.  All the riffs have been shredded, all the vocals have been operatic and grand, all the songs about fantasy and striving for some great and noble purpose have been written and celebrated around whatever grand campfire.

It follows then, that to make a true mark on the power metal genre in any form, the premise must be both totally unique and flawlessly well executed.  Powerwolf is the standard-bearer for this kind of revolution, but they’re hardly alone.

Exhibit A, Ryujin and their eponymous album, which intends to inject some life into the ‘samurai metal’ splinter genre that the band had previously championed under the name GYZE.  Part of this is the infusion of melodic death metal tenets woven into the fabric of the music.  Combining this with the inclusion of indigenous instruments and unique guitar tones accomplishes the goal of being totally unique against a staid landscape.  But is the execution on par?

Sometimes the answer is yes!  Four cuts in, the album shines brightly with “Raijin & Fujin,” as brisk and speedy and vital a power metal banger as has been written in years.  It boasts a six minute run-time, but never feels dry or dead-ended, moving between cinematic set pieces and fiery solos with easy aplomb.

The album isn’t just a technical demonstration, though – it varies the songwriting to such a degree that the listener is taken immediately from a song that would sound at home in the heart of DragonForce’s storied catalogue (but with way more shamisen,) to a melodramatic and ultra-corny but completely compelling power ballad in “The Rainbow Song.”  Every stereotype of cloud-parting-sunshine-metal-ballad that’s ever existed is wrapped up in this cut, and despite the obvious saccharine ridiculousness, the song is an instant singalong classic and brings an easy smile to all around.

Skipping down to the title track (and continuing the great metal tradition of synergy between band, album and song name – the song “Iron Maiden” on the album “Iron Maiden” by the band Iron Maiden…see also Black Sabbath,) and we see again an accomplished side of Ryujin, this one mixing in a completely clean guitar tone with some pentatonic-scale backgrounds and a real flavor for what we’ve come to think of Eastern-sounding music.  It is in these longer songs where Ryujin excels most, as they explore the space with confidence and yet still manage to keep the songs on the rails.

The issue though, is that there’s not enough of these songs to propel the album into greatness.  We’ve pretty much discussed the best moments the album has to offer, and what remains isn’t bad by any means, but never becomes something more than the baseline of a hundred different flavors of power metal (even if “Saigo No Hosi” seems like it might be a karaoke favorite.)

Ryujin’s new record could have been truly great if they’d pushed the envelope with Eastern influences on each cut, rather than selecting just a few to parse them in.  There’s great talent here, but too many cuts (“Dragon, Fly Free,” “Scream of the Dragon,” “Gekirin” to name a few,) never blossom into something we all haven’t heard before.  It’s a shame, because it causes the album to fade into the pastiche of the genre(s) around it, thus taking attention away from the select moments that truly soar.

Album Review: Dark Forest - "Beyond the Veil"

We’re all adults here (or at least resemble something reasonably similar.)  It’s time to have an honest, mature talk about the genre of ‘traditional’ metal.  This is a genre that’s spinning in circles, and not only is it spinning in circles, but nearly every band in it is spinning in the same damn circles.  Traditional metal is out of ideas, and has been for quite a while now.  Which is why, even though I personally prefer the early era of Iron Maiden, I totally understand why they felt the need to re-invent themselves as a borderline prog-metal band in order to stay relevant.  Perhaps worst of all, the traditional metal genre is stocked deep with personages who will not adapt, and not move one iota in any direction away from the formula that hit its peak some thirty years ago.

So that all sounds like there’s no hope for the new Dark Forest record, right?  No, and that’s why we’re talking about it in the first place.  The one factor that can easily overcome genre sterility and the foreboding feeling of repeating the past is talent, and Dark Forest’s “Beyond the Veil” keeps the torch flickering because the band has an ear for the creative and a bevy of accomplished talent.

“Beyond the Veil” works so well because Dark Forest isn’t just stamping out another mass-produced, predictable power metal record.  This is a band that’s delved into the depths of medieval themes and studied the music of the past to create something novel.  The end result is almost like a metal-come-lately exhibition by minstrels (and no, not THOSE minstrels.)

Which takes us to a larger point.  If “Beyond the Veil” can be viewed as a representation of lessons learned throughout the history of the genre, than this album best reflects those greatest of teachers, Iron Maiden (there’s that name again,) and to a lesser extent, pillars like Judas Priest and originators like Cirith Ungol.  Dark Forest has a firm hold on the idea that metal of this type shouldn’t simply regurgitate the idea of ‘being metal’ or simply hold high an ale mug for the base justification of doing so.  The songs must tell a story, even if a touch fanciful, and must possess a strong sense of adventure.  This is how they come to write “Where the Arrow Falls,” a song that uses a fantastic gallop and a simple hook riff to retain the listener’s attention for the duration of the peace.  The percussion, often overlooked in cases of traditional metal is deployed with aplomb here, as the drums must set the pace and don’t simply carry it.

The same ideas work well in multiple places on the record, bringing robust tracks like “The Undying Flame” and the title track to life, so to speak.  These songs dance and spin and run and fight with all the expected pomp and circumstance, which is fine in and of itself.  Dark Forest, though, also laces all their efforts with a certain humor…maybe that’s the wrong word, but I think you see what I’m going for.  There’s an air of optimism and carousing ambition here, which colors the music just enough to be effective, but not so much as to tumble over the edge into corniness.

Here’s the trick, and this is where I feel awful as a music journalist, because it feels like I’m punting and taking an editorial shortcut.  What is it that separates “Beyond the Veil” from so many similar records from contemporary bands?  Hard to say, it just ‘feels’ different.  Sometimes as a music fan you just know, and this is one of those case where you know.  And that’s a horrible, lazy cop-out, but that’s the most accurate description.

It is worth noting that the album dogs it in the middle a little.  It’s understandable – Dark Forest has a lot of grand musical ideas and they clearly want to explore them all to the fullest, but right in the middle of the record, there are four songs that go for seven minutes, seven, six and six, which doesn’t make them bad songs, but makes the album’s snappy start grind down to a trot.

Don’t let that stop you, though.  “Beyond the Veil’ is a really fun record, and the kind of record that will make you look at the other traditional metal records on your shelf and say ‘why can’t you do that?’

Album Review: Scythia - "Lineage"

Canada is rarely thought of as a haven for power metal, but the west coast of the Great White North is the home of Scythia, a full-throated power metal band that flies below many radars, but it quickly ascending into the clouds above.  Their new album “Lineage” sees the band practicing their combinative art of story-telling and orchestrated metal that captures the attention and shows the versatility of the genre.

Like many concept albums featuring an array of colorful characters, “Lineage” is at its best when introducing its villains.  As Scythia bounds into “Laugh of the Tsar,” we see a depiction of a patrician, decadent ruler who scoffs at those beneath him, content to flex his iron will and exert control.  The music here is not filled with particular malice, but instead portrays a carousing recital, making it easy to picture a crowded hall of sycophants chanting in chorus with their liege lord.

Which reflects the best strength of “Lineage,” Scythia easily and comfortably changing color to fit the mood of the various phases of their concept.  “Soldier’s Lament,” in contrast to what we spoke about above, is a much more dour and emotional piece, with thinner melodies and more open space for the on-point vocals to glimmer through.  This same versatility applies when looking at nearly every song on the record, whether the raging thump of “Barbarian,” or the dire tones of “The Sacrifice.”

“Barbarian,” so long as we’re talking about it, might be the album’s best singular experience, a rousing good time that combines the bright colors of Scythia’s preferred tones with the deceptive power that this brand of metal can use in spots.  The song rumbles and rattles but never loses its melody, an excellent brand of brandished muscle and well-constructed scaling.

The only thing that “Lineage” is missing is some threatening edge.  All the pieces of “Lineage” are fine, but for an album that’s creating characters and telling a story, it could use a little more bite.  This isn’t a problem exclusive to Scythia, it’s endemic to power metal as a whole, so we’re not talking about a new problem here.  Nevertheless, a little variance in the attitude or tone, in addition to the musical separation of the songs, would go a long way.

Scythia’s new record is, by and large, a fine example of all the things that this genre can do well, particularly in relation to storytelling and scene setting.  The atmosphere of “Lineage” is spot-on, and the presentation is a good lesson to contemporary bands about how to craft power metal songs that don’t sound stamped out or cliché.  There’s a lot to like here.

Album Review: Marius Danielsen's Legend of Valley Doom

Ten years spent toiling.  Ten years in the oven, basting, turning, cooking.  Ten years a labor of love and music.  That’s the background of Marius Danielsen’s “Legend of Valley Doom,” a metal opera project that goes way beyond such clichéd terms as ‘supergroup’ or ‘all-star lineup’ and transcends as a Who’s Who of the power metal universe.

Begun as an idea of Marius himself, “Legend of Valley Doom” sought to expand beyond the comparatively simple confines of modern power metal and create an all-encompassing, immersive metal experience, something that would ring through the ages and drip with the centuries-crafted artistic melodrama of opera.

Starting from a base camp of his own band Darkest Sins, Marius and his brother Peter started to climb the summit of this massive production by reaching out to friends and musicians willing to lend a hand.  It would take too much space here to list all the names, but just know that if there’s a band you can think of from the power metal sphere, there’s a more than fair chance that someone from that band is featured on this album in some capacity.  Like gathering heroes from the far corners of Europe and North America, musicians came from all walks to help make this record possible.

So what does ten years of preparation sound like?  Somewhere at the intersection of Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody and Turisas sits the general thrust of “Legend of Valley Doom.”  It has the clean power metal feel of the former while taking presentation cues from the latter.  Much like the Finnish would-be Varangians, “Legend of Valley Doom” specializes in rafter-raising singalong choruses, gleeful chunks that are easily imagined in mead halls or theaters with vaulted ceilings.  The addition of spoken narration by several characters helps add context and depth, making this more than just a concept album, but a true story-telling experience.

And it doesn’t take long to get there.  The album truly begins with “The Battle of Bargor Zun,” which sounds about as fantastical and imaginative as the title would suggest.  This is power metal fury as it always should be, bent around huge orchestration and musicians behind the curtain who are clearly enjoying their craft.  Vocalists are playing their parts, whether faithful prince or evil lord, battling each other with alternating verses and letting the music create foundation representing the tumult underneath.

The actual title track is a fourteen minute epic that sees the heroes in different phases, as the song expertly gallops from vocal opus to blistering guitar exhibition to pounding, horse-riding outro.  The album shines here not only in its presentation, but in having absolutely no pretense and simply being delightfully corny.  Make no mistake, that’s meant as a compliment.  Too many albums of this nature get drowned in the pomp and circumstance of fantasy subject matter, but “Legend of Valley Doom” supersedes that by simply giving in and going for full theatrics.  A chorus of warriors singing in tune about riding to their certain death and taking on the tenets of fate is naught but good drama, and
Marius and company leave that enjoyable facet unadorned with airs of arrogance.

The perhaps predictable weakness of “Legend of Valley Doom” lies in the very collection of musicians that make up its countenance.  By recruiting nearly exclusively from the power metal sphere, the album never creates something wholly new.  For all of its prowess and exhibition, the album never expands beyond the sphere of its creation, thus leading to a record that is beautifully produced but doesn’t make one forget about the rest of the genre.

The Dark Lord, by way of example, is portrayed well by Mark Boals, but he’s another in the line of power metal vocalists, and the Dark Lord is similarly backed by different but still clean power metal tones.  One can’t help but wonder – what would this project sound like if the Dark Lord were voiced by Peter Tagtgren or Dave Wyndorf?  How well could he stand out if Tom Morello or John Christ created an atmosphere for his arrival?  This is something Rush captured well for “2112,” where the protagonist and the Priests are given separate presentation.  Even in high end theatre, nobody really confuses Jean Valjean with Inspector Javert – they are accompanied and shown differently.   These are the nagging questions which haunt the corners of “Legend of Valley Doom.”

The record ends with the heroes suffering a climactic defeat, but their spokesman quickly swoops in and proclaims that not all is lost.  They still have the hope of joining forces with another distant kingdom to drive out the evil interlopers.  This is when the listener’s eye happens to catch that part of the record’s title is ‘Part 1,’ which means the sequel is coming!

“Legend of Valley Doom” may not be the most captivating album of the year, but it is quite well done and clearly a labor of intense love by the Danielsens.  At the very least, Listeners will want to hear to Part 2 to see how the epic unfolds and ultimately concludes.