SMOULDER – Violent Creed of Vengeance (2023)
”Violent Creed of Vengeance” is the second album from Canadian metallers SMOULDER, a band obviously inspired by the Seventies / Eighties sound from the genre, however with potent 2023 style. With influences from Rainbow, Black Sabbath and Impelliteri to Blind Guardian and Chastain, SMOULDER delivers mixture of Heavy, Epic Metal with something from the classic era and something from the current.
The songwriting, the solid riffing, the magnificent lead parts and of course the extremely inspired vocal melodies of female shouter Sarah Ann, brought to the foreground a talented band having some great music to share.
This skull-stomping stuff with a lot of classic US technical metal on it, driven by crunchy guitars, granite rhythm section and powerful female clean vocals.
Among the highlights “Midnight In The Mirror World” is a bright burner with a Sabbath-esque spirit. A healthy variety of grooves carry “Mirror World” along a hallowed path, well-trod to be sure, but the main riff has so much flexibility, so many new tricks to keep the path twisting, that it never explores the same territory. Underneath it all, the drama keeps climbing and climbing, like the craggy steps of a mountain temple.
“Path Of Witchery” is the best showcase of the band’s more daring melodic sensibilities. The riffs are a unified volley of fleet tremolo, launching into a chorus that darts like a viper. When the leads take the field, they come together just marvelously, creating such a romantic interplay between lines. Smoulder’s leads certainly aren’t the shreddiest, but they are finely honed and like all the other musical ideas, so well engrained and supported that they take on the stirring character of the lyrics, glinting with mythopoetic luster.
However, the unique vocals of Sarah Ann are the band’s ultimate trademark – both the color voice and the particular vocal melodies that she is using. Thanks to the way that Sarah sings and thanks the balancing of the vocal parts on the overall mix, the listener will come across this very special feeling of listening a totally unknown singer, singing on one of those 80s ultra obscure albums.
During 2022, Sarah Ann and S. Vincent moved to Finland from their native Canada, but not wanting to leave anything to chance, Smoulder ensured that their second album was entirely written and meticulously rehearsed before joining the production team of Valtteri Kallio and Jani Snellmain in July 2022 in Espoo, Finland.
01 – Violent Creed of Vengeance
02 – The Talisman and the Blade
03 – Midnight in the Mirror World
04 – Path of Witchery
05 – Victims of Fate
06 – Spellforger
07 – Dragonslayer’s Doom
Sarah Ann – vocals
S. Vincent and Collin Wolf – guitars
Adam Blak – bass
Kevin Hester – drums
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