Artist: Moonlight Agony 
   Title: Silent Waters
   Label: Dockyard 1

Hailing from Kungsbacka in Sweden, Moonlight Agony have seen more than their fair share of line-up changes since their incarnation back in 1999, but the main stay of the band and founding members Kalle Landin and Robert Willstedt still remain to this day and are joined by Martin Mellstrom on keyboards, Robert “Peson’ Petersson on guitar, the latest member bassist Christer “Zigge” Pedersen and new frontman David Akesson, together they are the new Moonlight Agony.

The band recent signing to German label Dockyard 1 sees the bands debut with the label ‘Silent Waters’, bringing the band a new lease of life and purpose, and is bound to bare fruit as the word gets round on the splendour of this release.

The bands sound is deeply set in the Power Metal genre, but not withstanding to tradition, the band also mix some Symphonic and Progressive elements into their overall sound, the result is quite a heady mix that works remarkably well especially with the vocal talents of new frontman Akesson, who his youth brings an air of enthusiasm and fortitude to the bands overall sound.

The band do away with the seemingly obligatory intro that you often associate with Power Metal bands and get straight down to business with ‘Leaving Solitude’.  A thumping mix of soaring guitars and keyboards together with a backbone rhythm section, but it’s the vocal prowess of Akesson that really gets the hairs on the back jumping.  This guy has a power and grace that were made for the genre.

The album continues with ‘You Betrayed Me’, a track with a very progressive metal edge that's still within the realms of Power Metal, with its bombardment of kick drums by Willstedt and the rampaging guitars of Landin and Petersson, all interwoven with the majestic keyboards of Mellstrom and the might of Akessons vocals.

The progressive feel is still present on the darker ‘Soulless’, a much heavier feel to this one as Akesson shows he can dish out a little aggression when needed.  The next track is true Power Metal at its finest ‘Through The Desert Storm’, with its double kick drum and thunderous bass, mixed with some over the top keyboards and some outlandish speed guitar riffs and of course a powerful vocalist.

The band continue their assault on the senses with another monster of a track this time it’s the pulsating riff laden ‘The Dark Era’, before bringing things down a touch with ‘I’m Alive’.  A track that twists from the sombre side of the band to the all out pounding metal in the blink of an eye and such goes down as one of my favourite tracks off the album just for its multiplicity of styles.

‘Room 101’ is another blistering piece of Power induced Metal that is based around another thumping drum performance by Willstedt and the soaring guitars of Peson and Landin.  Another track where the guitars exceed the speed barriers is the fantastic ‘Different Stories’.  It's another one of those tracks that varies its tempo throughout from the all out speed side to the moody bass parts and classical orchestration of Mellstrom’s keyboards.  Different moods, different stories.

With the album almost at a close the band really put out all the stops with the final two tracks firstly it’s the almost Battle Metal opus ‘The Blood Red Sails’, a song that is pure Scandinavian metal without a doubt, and secondly the final track on this splendid release is ‘Solemn Waters’, an all out metal assault that mixes symphonic elements with rampaging guitars a thunderous Power Metal rhythm section.  All of which unites in a track worthy of any Power Metal release and one which rounds of a great album. So let's hope that this new formation of the band remains a strong unit because together they have all the right ingredients to rise to the top of the genre and remain there for sometime.

All content copyright of The Mayfair Mall Zine unless otherwise stated.