2022 was a pretty proliferate year for Power Metal. A remarkable number of records made it onto our review roster, some with pretty excellent fare, others – well – didn’t quite convince.
So, into this lusty fray, Arrayan Path decided to add yet another of their records. The RMR review committee actually vowed to abandon the quest to wring some sense out of this band’s musings. You know, those Power Metal folks from Cyprus that will drive Kiske to tears with their cheese-dripping fare.
Now, the 2020 piece The Marble Gates to Apeiron didn’t quite impress us1 that much. And that, despite the band’s credo that they just wished to produce the best metal songs possible. Or perhaps just because of it.
So, along came Thus Always to Tyrants. And it turned out – in a way – to be a new beginning. The record’s a theme-based concept album on King Evagoras I of Cyprus, apparently the first of its kind in the long career of this band. And as always, a solid storyline breeds quality, no exception for this record. But will Arrayan Path‘s new piece live up to the high bar now in place for 2022? It’s gonna be an Olympic task, to say the least. But then, this might be right up their alley.
Well, the record leads off with a ton of gusto on Oh Dark Tears (Aftermath). That’s one great epically bombastic Power Metal track that will impress with its speedy affinity, complete with a few trve metal screams that suspiciously sound like the sins of other culprits in this genre. Now, fortunately, Arrayan Path‘s well-known formula to hit the crowd with a sturdy metal track first and then let everyone wither away of boredom later didn’t quite happen this time. Instead, there is real spice in their tune this time and some lusty oomph that’s carried by all band members. Case in point, the second track – The Usurper – already generated some raised fists in our darkened listening room.
In other words, Thus Always To Tyrants truly gorges with extremely strong tracks. All of that heated metal comes with ornately chiseled riffs, excellent solos, both with lengthy key sections and guitars (Artaxerxes II Mnemon, for instance), and an unleashed Nicolas Leptos with a vocal fury not known before. Methinks that the history lesson on display resonated with the band and really got their juices flowing. And even us measly individuals sporting less than an IQ of 1402 got to enjoy some of that. Who would have thought that, right?
The RMR crew particularly enjoyed this ebb and flow between fast-paced PM and loads of mid-tempo passages. This is – at first – proof of pretty snazzy songwriting. And second, it injects a lot of variation into the tune. You’ll still find a lot of galloping to annoy Bruce Dickinson all about the soundscape (Artaxerxes II Mnemon yet again). But those spots of virtue really got Thus Always To Tyrants to the next level. Like the excursion into some prog on the excellent In Salamis, complete with some harpsichord, no less. Or the use of the lyre interpreted by Christina Polycarpou.
And that even made us somewhat grumpily accept the overly lengthy 64-minute airtime the band threw at us. And indeed, Arrayan Path could have culled the weak parts off the tracklist a bit better in the second half of the record (Of Royal Ancestry, for instance). Adding unnecessary airtime to a record will never improve quality, and this one’s no different.
Ultimately though, Thus Always To Tyrants delivered an amazingly potent Power Metal piece. This is one giant step up from the fare we got to taste over the last few records. Arrayan Path added a lot of red meat on those scrawny metal bones the former pieces left to rot. And – they kept the proliferation of overrated cheese at reasonable levels at the same time which is a feat in and by itself. The storyline truly added a lot of fervor, energy, and true drama. And to our surprise, this didn’t lead to a friggin’ ton of overrated bombast slathered in cheese. Instead, we got ourselves a sturdy slab of feisty Power Metal full of stellar nuggets of metallic excellence. A thoroughly enjoyable album.
Recommended.
Record Rating: 7/10 | Label: Pitch Black Records | Web: Facebook (band)
Release Date: 9 December 2022