Cruz Del Sur
2008
1. Speak To Me
2. Dark New Life
3. No Remains
4. Red Honor
5. Buried At Sea
6. Rats And Rope
7. Cover Your Eyes And Pray
8. Telepath
9. Be Gone
After The Longest Night you could definitely count this one among the albums I was waiting on this year. The thing I liked about that album is the fact it managed to come up with traditional American metal that didn't just sound like a stale rehash which is often a problem when bands think too within the box of a genre. I find American traditional is generally more guilty of this than most.
In a basic sense this album picks up very much where The Longest Night left off, but there's just something missing here. After repeated listens of trying to latch onto the songs I just find that I can't like the tunes here as much as on the previous album. Maybe it's the fact that the songs, for the most part, don't ever seem to just bust out into those Maiden-esque gallops and fiery energy that I liked about some of the last album. These songs seem tired in a sense as they never really build to anything like a great epic chorus and I find that kinda breaks this album. The things that made the last album so memorable for me just seem to be absent in the songwriting. Be Gone seems too plodding at times and the tracks blend together a bit for me. The only big standout to me is Dark New Life which is no real surprise as anything with the guitarists of Riot on board is at least bound to be interesting in the guitar department.
All in all I have to call this one a disappointment. There's no outlandish changes that make it a bad album, it's just kind of a mediocre one. It's still Pharaoh and I'm sure fans will find some things to like here, it's just not Pharaoh at they're best. I know the band is capable of more than this release and it kinda seems like this album is more like leftovers from the previous.
Highlights: Dark New Life, Telepath
Rating - 3.0/5
2. Dark New Life
3. No Remains
4. Red Honor
5. Buried At Sea
6. Rats And Rope
7. Cover Your Eyes And Pray
8. Telepath
9. Be Gone
After The Longest Night you could definitely count this one among the albums I was waiting on this year. The thing I liked about that album is the fact it managed to come up with traditional American metal that didn't just sound like a stale rehash which is often a problem when bands think too within the box of a genre. I find American traditional is generally more guilty of this than most.
In a basic sense this album picks up very much where The Longest Night left off, but there's just something missing here. After repeated listens of trying to latch onto the songs I just find that I can't like the tunes here as much as on the previous album. Maybe it's the fact that the songs, for the most part, don't ever seem to just bust out into those Maiden-esque gallops and fiery energy that I liked about some of the last album. These songs seem tired in a sense as they never really build to anything like a great epic chorus and I find that kinda breaks this album. The things that made the last album so memorable for me just seem to be absent in the songwriting. Be Gone seems too plodding at times and the tracks blend together a bit for me. The only big standout to me is Dark New Life which is no real surprise as anything with the guitarists of Riot on board is at least bound to be interesting in the guitar department.
All in all I have to call this one a disappointment. There's no outlandish changes that make it a bad album, it's just kind of a mediocre one. It's still Pharaoh and I'm sure fans will find some things to like here, it's just not Pharaoh at they're best. I know the band is capable of more than this release and it kinda seems like this album is more like leftovers from the previous.
Highlights: Dark New Life, Telepath
Rating - 3.0/5
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