SEVEN SPIRES – A Fortress Called Home (2024)
Boston-based symphonic metal band SEVEN SPIRES are about to release their fourth studio album, titled “A Fortress Called Home” via Frontiers Music. SEVEN SPIRES’ members fancy music education and performance skills combined to produce something genuinely worthy of being called “symphonic.”
The songwriting on “A Fortress Called Home” is lush and complex. The emotional impact has always been first and foremost in their delivery, from sound to production. Songs like “Love’s Souvenir” or “The Old Hurt of Being Left Behind” tug firmly on your symphonic metal heartstrings. They’re great at contrasting soaring highs and crashing lows.
Catchiness follows from interesting, creative hooks and twists, not from big cheap choruses. “A Fortress Called Home” is never content to sit around in a single genre, despite the obvious sympho / power metal base. And the orchestration threaded through all of it is key to its success, and never too busy or too cheesy.
The star of the show is once again Adrienne Cowan on clean and harsh vocals (not to mention the keyboards, songwriting, and orchestration). She’s a brilliant singer with versatile cleans and heavy, enunciated growls, and carries a lot of the album’s emotional weight with panache.
I also really like the Rhapsody of Fire flavored duet with a male vocalist on “Songs Upon Wine-Stained Tongues.” Guitarist Jack Kosto (who also handles the very complex production work) is impressive, with highlights like the lyrical guitar on “No Place For Us” and regular stylish solos.
Bassist Peter de Reyna gets a few spotlight moments, like the end of “Impossible Tower”, and deserves more. Finally, percussion has a lot of work to do to carry music with this much going on, and departing drummer Chris Dovas does a great job matching the ever-changing moods.
Seven Spires has produced an emotional, captivating sympho-metal record filled with unexpected twists. Existing fans should find a lot to love here. And if you’re a fan of anything even vaguely power / prog metal flavored, or like symphonic metal in theory but not in execution, and have never checked out Seven Spires, now is the time.
Highly Recommended
01 – A Fortress Called Home
02 – Songs Upon Wine-Stained Tongues
03 – Almosttown
04 – Impossible Tower
05 – Love’s Souvenir
06 – Architect of Creation
07 – Portrait of Us
08 – Emerald Necklace
09 – Where Sorrows Bear My Name
10 – No Place for Us
11 – House of Lies
12 – The Old Hurt of Being Left Behind
Adrienne Cowan : Vocals, Keyboards
Jack Kosto : Guitars
Peter Albert de Reyna : Bass
Chris Dovas : Drums
Pre order:
www.amazon.co.uk/Fortress-Called-Home-Seven-Spires/dp/B0CXHKKXTX
