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VII Gates hail from Sweden and that alone should make you sit up and take notice because the Swedes sure can rock. ‘In Hoc Signo Vinces’ (In This You Will Conquer) is the band's second release, but their first on Lion Music, and what a way for the label to get their union off to a great start!
This album mixes the more classic heavy metal with some more modern power metal vibe and result is quite extraordinary. If you could mix early Iron Maiden with Helloween you would probably get something close to what VII Gates are doing. Big guitars mixed with stunning powerful vocals and a tremendous all powerful rhythm section.
The album opens up with the rather unusual intro ‘When Gates Are Opening’. A sort of Spinal Tap meet Johnny Carson talk show, but things really get underway with the monster metal of ‘The Skyrider’, a great mix of riffs from JJ Rockford and Robert Makek with the towering vocals of Chris Blackburn adding that extra metal edge to proceedings.
The band mix those classic rock elements with that modern Power Metal edge with great gusto on ‘Dreams They Haunt Me’, which has a sort of Deep Purple metal vibe about it.
After another short intro ‘March Of The Amazones’ before it's back to the full out metal of ‘Answer To You, Heart (Stranger In The Dark)’, before the epic ‘Immortal (Hymn To A Prison Guard)’. A real true metal song much in the Helloween vein. Big guitars and additional keyboards on this song really add that bit extra to the sound and with Blackburn’s true metal vocals, this track with suit the metalheads and the blue collar rockers alike.
After the epic tones of the previous track it's more heads down metal with ‘Lethal Attraction’. Again the keyboards are an added extra that takes the sound out of the usual Heavy Metal genre and gives it a certain something that makes it stand out from the crowd and that's what you want to hear, something new and refreshing.
Another grandiose track is the six minute ‘Children Of The Corn’. This is definitely at the Power Metal end of the bands spectrum with soaring guitars from Rockford and Makek, added to the monstrous rhythms of Nicola Pasa on bass and Mick Van Slowfoot on drums. Behind every great Power Metal sound is a great keyboard player and guest keyboardist of Tim Diaz really lets loose on this one in true Power Metal style.
The epic metal is more abundant on this album than the bands previous releases and this shows the band are afraid to take things a little further. This is again highlighted by the power rendering's of ‘The Mad Minstrels (with delusions of grandeur)' and again with the monster ‘The Lake’.
The album is rounded off with two slices of guitar fuelled Hard Rock. First up it’s the superb ‘Cat Eyes’, before rounding things off with the slow burner ‘Feeding The Predator’, which starts off with a little jazz funk vibe before unleashing Blackburn’s power-ridden metal vocal.
This is a real gem of an album that really gets me vote as it touches all the right buttons for me, it rocks big style and that's what I like. |
