Greece’s Mystfall must have sailed straight past our outpost a few years ago. Their debut album, Celestial Vision, just didn’t register. But then, 2023 was a busy year, and the RMR crew is thus excused.
But now it’s time for some Symphonic and Power Metal fun of times long past. Yep, that genre again, one that’s hopelessly overcrowded with a felt 99% of wannabes and 1% of real stars of this very special slice of the metal multiverse.
I mean, we all still remember when this movement really took off in the early ’00s with the likes of Epica, Nightwish, or Within Temptation. Somewhat unknown bands, featuring an emerging style that visibly broke the beastly metal’s back and went straight into overdriven melodics. A new genre that nobody (really) thought would work back then, but instead took on a life of its own. Welcome to the past!
Embers of a Dying World indeed reaches far back in time. It is as if the starry wonders of the late ’90s and early ’00s are back in force. Wild symphonic excursions, metal riffs galore, string orchestras that should belong to an opera, and a classically-trained soprano – Marialena Trikoglou – to egg everything on. The RMR crew was surprised that Mystfall even integrated growls into their spiel. Meaning, we get treated to yet another episode of The Beauty and The Beast. A trait adopted by many early Symphonic Metal outlets at first, but ditched later. The reason? Their growls mostly sucked, so they gave it up. And rightly so. Today, the most prominent one still having a growler is Epica with Mark Jansen as the main perpetrator.
And that gets us to the style Mystfall are employing. Methinks that at times, Embers of a Dying World tries a tad too hard to reconstruct early to later Epica with some excursions into Nightwish and The Silent Force era of Within Temptations. The growls, however, are amazingly powerful. In other words, the references are endless, and for this record, there may be too many. Let’s single out Sleeper in the Abyss as an example. A great track, agreed. But what did I hear? This sounds like a mix of the Angels / Memories combo from the aforementioned 2004 WT album.1 It is not an exact copy, of course, but you’ll get my drift.
So, Embers here has a lot working for them. For once, this is one of the most proficient Power and Symphonic Metal pieces this season has seen yet. The RMR crew absolutely loved Mystfall‘s infectious energy that bubbles to the surface at every turn of that weavy path they chose. Even the intermezzo – The Nectar and the Pain – with its exquisite instrumentation didn’t fail to connect with this crew. And it is a pity that Mystfall didn’t connect this to some slow-motion lament or other. An opportunity missed right there.
Tracks like Crimson Dawn and Echoes of Arcadia serve as monumentous locomotives to pull this record along. Again, strangely connected to the masters of the late ’90s and early ’00s, but not going there outright. That said, the RMR crew found it truly amazing how Embers of a Dying World connects all of that material in a tightly written 38 minutes of airtime. And it’s almost funny, I am going to say this, but sometimes I wish they’d elaborated a bit more. At times, it seems that the classically tainted vocals were almost at pains to keep up with the drummer’s whirlwind patterns and the relentless riff fest on display.
Ultimately, Embers has the look and feel of an old-school Symphonic Metal record. One that doesn’t invent new things but presents an exceedingly well-constructed set of tracks. Garnished with all accouterments, such as proficient vocals, a great orchestration, typical riffing and solos, and drum work that truly stands out. That said, there will be a lot of people bemoaning exactly that fact. But as to this crew, Mystfall delivered an intriguingly good nostalgia piece that we will return to for some time.
As to future records, however, this band needs to up the ante. This is an unbelievably overcrowded genre. And without being at the very top of your game, any band will sadly become part of that miasma of acts doing much more of the same. Endlessly repeating past glories will just not do.
Record Rating: 7/10 | Label: Scarlet Records | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 20 March 2024