Album: Falconer
Label: Metal Blade Records
Year: 2001

Album: Among Beggars and Thieves
Label: Metal Blade Records
Year: 2008

Falconer, perhaps one of the most original and talented power metal bands of the 21st century, and are unquestionably at their best with vocalist Mathias Blad. The folkish power metal combined with Mathias’ uncharacteristic sweet voice that is noticably devoid of yells and shrieks like many of his operatic counterparts, provides the muscle behind some [...]

Folk metal is always a genre I find to be fresh and exhilarating. Virtually every album I have listened to has at least some redeeming qualities, mainly because most of the music is so complex and symphonic in nature, that it requires writers and musicians alike who are up to the challenge. The few bands [...]

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=x9wci8aCCM0[/youtube]
Friede Sei Mit Dir
Album: Riders on the Storm
Label: Nuclear Blast
Year: 2006
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=6xl-EqHMMzE&feature=related[/youtube]
Die Sonne Scheint
Album: Samurai
Label: Nuclear Blast
Year: 2004
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=HypV8LtbLyE&feature=related[/youtube]
Instinct (live)
Album: Soft and Stronger
Label: Martyr
Year: 1997
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=vLRkYC-V2f4&feature=related[/youtube]
Wahnsinn (live)
Album: Samurai
Label: Nuclear Blast
Year: 2004

I have never really been a fan of Folk Metal. Finntroll and Korpiklaani have never really done it for me. But, about a month ago while perusing the band lineups for the New England Metal Festival, I came across a Swiss band called Eluveitie. I clicked the Myspace link as I did for every band [...]

Let me start by saying, out of all of the albums I have had the chance to review for AMR, this is far and away the most obscure, laughable and approachable. Captain Morgan’s Revenge, the debut release for Scottish Folk metallers, Alestorm, is an enjoyable album. While it doesn’t really have a serious side to [...]

Ayreon is probably the best musical project I have ever heard. Arjen A. Lucassen, the mastermind of all the writing of every Ayreon album, is a musical genius in my mind, with a maturation in writing and superior ensembles of singers that blows his competition out of the water. Ayreon is literally, metal’s supergroup [...]

First track off of their album Evernight.

 
Battlelore’s 2007 album Evernight, is yet another unbridled take on epic power/symphonic metal with a flare for the cheese that would put a lactose intolerant into a coma. However, for Battlelore fans, this is the name of the game, and Evernight delivers as much as ever.
Battlelore is an interesting combination of music for those who [...]