Emerald Sun – Regeneration

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Isn’t power metal fun? A classic, unmistakable sound with catchy melodies, fast guitars, mindblowing solos, soaring vocals and an all round good time. Sure it’s cheesy, sure it’s cliché, but some of the most enjoyable bands in metal are power metal bands. That being said, there are some really poor and derivative bands in the genre too. Take Emerald Sun, for example. Three albums in and the band still sound like a poor clone of other much better bands. As musicians the band are fine if not spectacular, but their music is utterly uninteresting. It sounds like the band are regularly deriving from different artists – Edguy, Firewind, Sonata Arctica are all hinted at here, but in second rate, carbon copied variations. Perhaps the worst offense though is the singer. It can’t be stated enough – if your band do not have a decent singer, do not play melodic metal of any type, especially not power metal. Our singer here is utterly grating, a voice so terribly weasel-like and nasal that it is painful just to listen to. In a genre renowned for terrific singers, there’s simply no need for a low calibre performer like this. Between the singer and the band’s lack of innovation, there’s really very little to recommend, unless you like kid-friendly songs about aliens (Planet Metal, complete with helium vocals, groan), pointlessly long epics (Fantasmagoria, twelve minutes that go absolutely nowhere) and near-insulting covers (given the singer’s weak talents, one wonders why they chose to cover Bonnie Tyler‘s Holding Out For A Hero, of all things). Otherwise, with such a wealth of bands in the genre, god knows why anyone would bother with this album.

Written by James Donovan
More: 2011, Albums, Power Metal, Quick.Play Reviews, Emerald Sun