Frontiers
2009
1. Deception
2. The Only One Sane
3. Pandeamonium
4. Eyes of the Devil
5. A Day to Come
6. Way Home
7. Fallen Angel
8. The Deamon Within
9. Oceans of Glory
10. Fear In a Fragile Mind
Saint Deamon is a band who came out of nowhere to put together one hell of an awesome debut. In Shadows Lost From The Brave was the most memorable and well put together first album I can think of in recent memory and I was very much looking forward to this one. I've been so impressed with this band between the singing, great melodic songwriting, and an excellent performance at ProgPower USA.
Unfortunately, I do have to say that I'm a little disappointed with this release and I kind of felt it coming with comments from the band how this would be heavy like Painkiller or something. Well, it's not, but the awkward attempt at heavying up Saint Deamon's sound does prove detrimental and a lot of the songs don't have the same sort of melodic feel, power, or anthemic qualities. The attempt at heaviness doesn't really take most of the time as the guitar sound seems like it's aimed at adding some muscle, but the songs don't really have the drive or speed to make it effective. Also, I don't think of Jan Thore as a particularly heavy singer and he doesn't help the vibe of the music get any heavier. I just feel like this one takes a bit of a hit in the songwriting area and not many of these tracks pop out at me like virtually all of them did on the last album. This is not to say this is a bad album or any of these songs are real clunkers, but I was hoping for more. There are a couple of very bright spots, the most notable of which are Pandeamonium and Way Home which capture the power and melodic sense of the first album beautifully. Pandeamonium is a superb choice of album title and single as this song just has such emotional power behind it.
I can't say I'm not a little let down by this one. I can appreciate the band wanting to metal up a bit and try something slightly different, but the best moments of this album are when the band sticks to what they're good at. Jan Thore Grefstad is just an amazing singer for melodic metal and the band shines when he's allowed breathing room in melodic, hook driven songs that empower him.
Highlights: Pandeamonium, Way Home, Oceans Of Glory
Rating - 3.5/5
2. The Only One Sane
3. Pandeamonium
4. Eyes of the Devil
5. A Day to Come
6. Way Home
7. Fallen Angel
8. The Deamon Within
9. Oceans of Glory
10. Fear In a Fragile Mind
Saint Deamon is a band who came out of nowhere to put together one hell of an awesome debut. In Shadows Lost From The Brave was the most memorable and well put together first album I can think of in recent memory and I was very much looking forward to this one. I've been so impressed with this band between the singing, great melodic songwriting, and an excellent performance at ProgPower USA.
Unfortunately, I do have to say that I'm a little disappointed with this release and I kind of felt it coming with comments from the band how this would be heavy like Painkiller or something. Well, it's not, but the awkward attempt at heavying up Saint Deamon's sound does prove detrimental and a lot of the songs don't have the same sort of melodic feel, power, or anthemic qualities. The attempt at heaviness doesn't really take most of the time as the guitar sound seems like it's aimed at adding some muscle, but the songs don't really have the drive or speed to make it effective. Also, I don't think of Jan Thore as a particularly heavy singer and he doesn't help the vibe of the music get any heavier. I just feel like this one takes a bit of a hit in the songwriting area and not many of these tracks pop out at me like virtually all of them did on the last album. This is not to say this is a bad album or any of these songs are real clunkers, but I was hoping for more. There are a couple of very bright spots, the most notable of which are Pandeamonium and Way Home which capture the power and melodic sense of the first album beautifully. Pandeamonium is a superb choice of album title and single as this song just has such emotional power behind it.
I can't say I'm not a little let down by this one. I can appreciate the band wanting to metal up a bit and try something slightly different, but the best moments of this album are when the band sticks to what they're good at. Jan Thore Grefstad is just an amazing singer for melodic metal and the band shines when he's allowed breathing room in melodic, hook driven songs that empower him.
Highlights: Pandeamonium, Way Home, Oceans Of Glory
Rating - 3.5/5
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