EMPIRES OF EDEN - review added 28th October 2009
Album Review: Songs Of War And Vengeance (2009)
For fans of: Metal... and Yngwie Malmsteen-isms
Empires of Eden is merely a side project for Paindivision guitarist Stu Marshall. Listening to the tracks on Songs Of War And Vengeance, that's a shame because there's a deluge of seriously good music going on here. If Paindivision's output betters this it'll be worth checking out.
The EOE project was started when Stu had a few months free from his main band. He already had a number of tracks written and penned more to fit in with the style of his guest vocalists - Mike Zoias, Louie Gorgievski and Chris Ninni. The three, as you'd expect, have different voices - to be fair they all come from the volume-is-good school of singing (and screaming) though.
Joining them are guests Michael Keeble (This World) on drums, Glenn Williams (ex-Dungeon) on bass, plus guitarists including Lord Tim, Mark Furtner, Yoshiyasu Maruyama, Richie Hausberger and more. The result is surprising fluid considering the number of contributors. Songs Of War And Vengeance could have been a jumble of conflicting sounds and styles but isn't. The glue that binds it all together is Stu with his fantastic guitar playing. He makes a heavy throbbing sound but has a serious turn of speed too. He's somewhere between Toni Iommi, Joe Stump and Herman Li, and has to rate as one of Australia's finest shredders.
The overall sound nods to power, symphonic and neo-classical metal with hints of Yngwie Malmsteen, Rob Rock's solo work, Helloween and, well, you name it. As said the result has a great flow from track to track, even though the style does vary as it progresses. There really are a wide variety of heavy head-banging shenanigans on offer.
Highlights include the first full track, 'New Hope', a rapid song that'll leave you breathless. The self-titled 'Empires Of Eden' has a great chorus and some mean-ass fretwork too. It's hard to know which guitarist plays which if any of the solos throughout the album. Fortunately they are all damn good so kudos to all the string flickers who worked on the album.
'The Reckoning' is a close-to-brilliant slower track with a truly epic vibe. I say close because, as with many of the tracks, the vocals don't match the quality or style of the musicianship. The vocalists on Songs Of War And Vengeance certainly aren't without merit, but it could have been a considerably better album had someone like, say, Michael Kiske or Jorn sung on it.
'Scars Of Innocence' is another fine slower track, as is 'Dark Religion'. 'Blood Of An Angel' goes down a more modern route and sounds bloody good. Imagine Impellitteri covering an Arch Enemy song and you'll have the right idea. 'Black Endings/Echoes Of Oblivion' on the other hand is a right weird one! It's a spoken track (featuring novelist Gun Arvidssen) with an atmospheric background. It tells a dark story about the destruction of humanity, but it's hard to tell if it's tongue in cheek or deadly serious. We'll settle on Spinal Tap performing a Stephen King novel...
Ultimately this is a very cool but flawed album. Full marks for the writing and playing, but those vocals let the side down just enough to keep Songs Of War And Vengeance from classic status. Hopefully there will be more to come from this 'side project'. Empires Of Eden does not deserve to be a one-off.
Check out... The guitar playing throughout.
Track List:
1. Dawn Of Fire (Intro)
2. New Hope
3. Empires Of Eden
4. The Reckoning
5. Through Eternity
6. Scars Of Innocence
7. Dark Religion
8. Blood Of An Angel
9. Fires Of Torment
10. Black Endings/Echoes Of Oblivion
11. Scars of Innocence (Orchestral Version)
Artist's website(s): Empires Of Eden , MySpace
