Power Metal hasn’t been much in play for the RMR zine this year. The malevolent undercurrents of the metal underbelly gained a lot more heft and that went to the detriment of the Metal o’ The Light. The Swedes from Hammerfall rose to questionable fame this year, being the only Power Metal outfit to date in 2024 on RMR. And that lands us with Veonity and their new piece The Final Element. More Swedish metallic power to embellish our somewhat overly daemonic stance on this year’s roster.
Premonition already got us confused, though. The band grandly states that the absence of synth-heavy musings will be their main venue for metallic grandeur. Yet, the first minute seemed to convince us to the contrary. But fear naught, once Chains of Tyranny roars off, we’re firmly back in Speed and Power Metal territory with Veonity in full bore mode. Fantasy and mystery galore, full of valiant knights with lit swords to conquer the masters of the dark or something. A mighty portion of dripping cheese firmly included.
For this here record, the band switched from a foursome to a five-member band. Anders Sköld – formerly occupying the spot of lead vocalist – mainly does guitar duty this time and left this battleground to one Isak Stenval (ex Lancer). And boy, the man has a mighty set of pipes that took us aback. Trve metal scream-laden geekery with no note out of place, rivaling current and past Heavy Metal masters. And funny enough, the somewhat oldish photo on the Metal Archives pictures him in the pose of a sort of ’80s version of one Bruce Dickinson. It’s truly hilarious how this sometimes plays out. An omen, perhaps, or just a cliché well served? We’ll never know for sure. But it did elicit a few evil chuckles from the folks over at the RMR review desk.
The Final Element sports a style somewhere in between the aforementioned Hammerfall, Evermore,1 and some hints to the famous Brits of Fellowship. And sometimes, one could feel good ol’ Kiske2 rummaging about backstage. But let’s stop that name-calling nonsense or it will get out of control.
True to Veonity‘s calling, you get a skeleton crew of one vocalist, two guitars, bass, and a drummer. And this indeed leads to a barebone, yet straight down-home Power Metal performance. Complete with the guitars shredding away as if the Fire Beast of the Underworld took a blowtorch to their esteemed behinds. Plus a few memorable tag-team moments with solos thrown in for good measure. And while the master of sticks boldly keeps it all together, the drumwork nonetheless remains a run-of-the-mill affair right down PM Alley. Powerful and standard at the same time with the bass somewhat inaudible in this raucous metallic riot.
Also, The Final Element won’t bore you with the usual metallic ballad, it’s all full power ahead in search of the next speeding ticket. Unfortunately, the back-to-back full-throated Power Metal roar on high-end kerosine lands Veonity with a strange case of the repetition bug. No track is exactly the same, of course. But the songs are all cut from the same cloth with some sensory overload that might set in after a while. And that turns this elementary fight into a somewhat tedious listen after a while. In other words, the lack of breaks in this glorious speed monster sucks the oxygen out of the recording after a while and turns into a merciless monolithic rock slide of high-velocity metal.
But in the end, The Final Element turned into good record, no doubt. A piece not without its shortcomings that is – at the same time – also (very) predictable. And this risks to turn this record into one of those dime-a-dozen affairs. On the other hand, the unbridled intensity of a densely written record also got us a fine example of how well-executed Power Metal ought to sound. A record that the adepts of the happy Metal o’ the Light will find a lot to like on. Lastly, the undeniable talent in this band gave us hope. If they can iron out the ubiquitous part of the offering and fire up their creativity machine, great things will grace us in the future. The RMR crew’s already waiting for more.
Record Rating: 6/10 | Label: Scarlet Records | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 18 October 2024