{"id":95401,"date":"2022-08-19T00:00:47","date_gmt":"2022-08-18T23:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=95401"},"modified":"2022-09-14T13:29:10","modified_gmt":"2022-09-14T12:29:10","slug":"album-review-dragon-throne-dawnbringer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-dragon-throne-dawnbringer\/","title":{"rendered":"DRAGON THRONE – Dawnbringer (2022) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

DRAGON THRONE
Dawnbringer<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nSelf-released (2022)<\/span>
Rating: 6\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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If Finnish epic metal is your thing then you might want to lend an ear to the debut full-length offering from this quintet. Personally, I can live without symphonic power metal, but it\u2019s only fair that I expose new bands which land in my lap.<\/p>\n

After the dramatic, cinematic intro you get treated to seven tracks boasting ancient and heroic tales whereby vocalists Antti Liimatainen and Santtu Korhonen cry to the heaven\u2019s such dramatic words as \u201cMy domain! My throne! This is my kingdom, begone!\u201d<\/em> and \u201cWe will fight to the end! Fight, fight, fight to the end! Fight, fight, we shall not fail! Fight, fight, divine prevail!\u201d<\/em>, so I\u2019m sure you catch my drift as to what this tapestry of bombastic tales is about.<\/p>\n

To be honest it\u2019s not as cheese-ridden as I expected, and musically there is flamboyance and speed with the combo providing ideal soundtracks to a screen exhibiting swooping dragons, scorched, smoking cities and great foaming seas carved by creaking vessels.<\/p>\n

The clearer vocals are commanding and work well in tandem to the more grisly croons, but there\u2019s a lot going on here. The band have been precise in their heavy metal role-playing and conjured up some rather vast dynamics dripping in old school metallic riffs, sweeping keyboards, hammering drums and boisterous choruses.<\/p>\n

\u2018Awaken Zuruk Baal\u2019 is grandiose, majestic and evocative, and conjures images of the mid-90s scene as mythology oozes from every pore. Meanwhile, \u2018Serpent King\u2019 sizzles and runs rampant mostly due to its excellent soloing brought to you by Juuso Korhonen, as the vocal commands ask, \u201cHow deep is your faith to the gods? How strong is your will and your heart?\u201d<\/em>. It\u2019s chest-pounding, sword n\u2019 sorcery masculinity that I do at times struggle to take seriously, but when it\u2019s relayed in such fiery fashion I\u2019m more than happy to hide my smirk and nod along with a tankard of ale as I stare into my dragon scale mirror.<\/p>\n

There are flashes of Iron Maiden, circa Powerslave<\/em> (1984), fused with Sabaton, even Manowar and of course Grave Digger, so at times the subjects do grate, as does the music. However, I like some of the Middle Eastern twists and varying encounters with mythology, particularly on \u2018Sands Of Rasul\u2019, while \u2018Silver City\u2019 speeds along in nifty fashion.<\/p>\n

Vocally, the clearer tone lacks power at times and seems to be restrained, existing within its limitations a bit too much, and some of the songs are a tad too long. But maybe the guys feel that to be power metal you have to construct a snoozefest like the title track which feels as long as the opening credits to the vastly overrated television series Game Of Thrones<\/em>.<\/p>\n

However, I do have faith in this Finnish tribe and I\u2019ll surprise myself by saying I am looking forward to the next instalment and hope they can iron out the creases on their voyage into mystical lands. To stand out from the crowd Dragon Throne will have to apply more heat and spice to their cauldron, because there are a lot of sound-a-likes out there attempting similar dragon-slaying designs without exposure.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DRAGON THRONEDawnbringer Self-released (2022)Rating: 6\/10 If Finnish epic metal is your thing then you might want to lend an ear to the debut full-length offering from this quintet. Personally, I can live without symphonic power metal, but it\u2019s only fair that I expose new bands which land in my lap. After the dramatic, cinematic intro […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,4982],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-ep-reviews","category-dragon-throne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95401"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95402,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95401\/revisions\/95402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}