Twilight Force - Heroes of Mighty Magic

[Power_Metal_Dom]

Tracklist

1. Battle Of Arcane Might
2. Powerwind
3. Guardian Of The Seas
4. Flight Of The Sapphire Dragon
5. There And Back Again
6. Riders Of The Dawn
7. Keepers Of Fate
8. Rise Of A Hero
9. To The Stars
10. Heroes Of Mighty Magic
11. Epilogue
12. Knights Of Twilight's Might

I fellow out of the habit of doing these big release threads - there's SO much coming out these days in the great big world of metal from underground gems to the big hitters, but this one for better or for worse had a reasonable level of hype and since the latest Sabaton fell completely flat for me, I thought it'd be good to check out people's feelings on this one.

This band is Gimmick with a reasonably capital G so I think I can predict Steve's feelings on it

But not unlike GloryHammer, for all their tongue-in-cheek-cheese there's some quite admirable composition here and masterful production. It's heavy emphasis on the symphonic part of symphonic power metal and much less on the metal side, but I'm finding it fun and catchy. The 'story' or concept of the album is paper thin and totally dismissible much as I can tell.

Thoughts?

tl;dr - Disney metal

 

[Symphony]

You know me so well lol!

I saw them a couple of years back and it was all cloaks and swords....not for me haha

 

[1928]

I honestly don't know if I'm just jaded or cynical or what it is, but for me, there's only one band that gets away with this over-the-top, dragons, adventure, swords-and-sorcery stuff and that's Rhapsody. My ears just hear parodies or caricatures of early Rhapsody with every band like this.

That said, these guys got chops. Mad skills. Gotta give 'em props for that much, at least..

 

[Marty_1994]

I'm getting a bit tired of people bashing at fantasy-driven metal bands...no offense to the people above!

 

[Symphony]

I've always thought dressing up is gimmick central. Just not for me....but there again as a 44 year old I'm pretty sure I'm not the target audience lol!

Dressing up and backing tracks.....to me equals lack of substance. Call me old fashioned haha

 

[Power_Metal_Dom]

Here's something to wind you up even more Steve, while we're at it

Chris of Alestorm/GloryHammer stated regarding Twilight Force:

DISCLAIMER: this information might be out of date (and i sincerely hope it is )

Oh man, let me tell you something. Twilight Force have taken the plague that is backing tracks, to it's logical extreme. EVERYTHING you hear live, comes through a laptop.

The drums have mutes on them to damp the natural sound, with triggers that are sent to a laptop to process them into crazy arena rock drums. The guitars are plugged straight into the laptop and processed with VST amplifier simulators, and all the guitar pedals and volume levels are automated throughout the songs onboard the computer too. Same for the vocals, all processed through the laptop, including turning on and off the backing vocal mics. And of course there's three billion metric fucktons of prerecorded orchestra and choir being played back. I have no idea what the human keyboard player is actually doing back there, apart from silly narrations.

They then give a multichannel output from the laptop to the Front of House enginner to mix together. Which is weird, i'd have thought they'd just simply give him a stereo mix and be done with it.

Anyway, when it works, it sounds weird and nothing like anything youve ever heard live before. When it doesn't work...like for example when they were supporting Gloryhammer on December 10th 2014 in a sweaty club in Hamburg...the laptop overheats & crashes, and there's this weird digital shitting-yourself noise over the PA like a record skipping for 3 seconds...then everything stops. Literally everything goes silent. No drums, no vocals, no guitars, no keys.

So yeah, that's how they do it.

As for playing with an orchestra, i mean it's entirely possible with enough budget. I know we've considered doing it one day for gloryhammer (everything we do is arranged for and theoretically playable by a real orchestra of sufficient talent).

 

[Symphony]

Not in the least bit surprised mate....but there's an awful lot of it about nowadays......

 

[Kingface]

Dom cheers for sharing that, very interesting to read. Where is Chris' post from? Is it on Facebook?

As for "dressing up" and "gimmicks" in music, I did go through a bit of a phase of being put off by bands where this is (or appeared to be) a key part of their music. I haven't listened to Sabaton in a long time (although they still have some great songs) and I think I've lost interest in Alestorm for good, to give a couple of examples.

That being said, I decided to check out Gloryhammer's latest album prior to seeing them live supporting Blind Guardian earlier this year and really enjoyed it, it's fun and well made music. I particularly like the song 'Universe on Fire'. They were also very enjoyable to hear and watch live.

I also think some people would do well to be more specific about when they think "dressing up" and "gimmicks" becomes a negative thing. Kiss have their dressing up, Rob Halford of Judas Priest has his umpteen costume changes during live shows, Bruce Dickinson when Iron Maiden play The Trooper live, oh and Alice Cooper of course.

 

[Symphony]

I hated Kiss apart from the unmasked period too lol!

My point is mainly around the fact that the vast majority of these bands also use backing tracks heavily as well. About as far from rock n roll as you can possibly get for me. If you can't play your own songs or cannot work an arrangement that can be played live then it's cheating in my book.

I also very much appreciate that I'm not exactly the target audience either lol!

 

[1928]

I just think the backing track thing has gotten ridiculous, as proven by the quote in Dom's post up there. Why even bother playing the music if you have to go through so many backing tapes, process everything through a computer, and basically rely on those to carry the rest of the band?

Obviously I'm hypocritical because I love bands like Rhapsody that have to use it but I think Rhapsody has far more integrity in the music (and knowing that originally they weren't even meant to be a live performing band in the first place, if I recall correctly)... I'd have to really sit down and think this issue through, preferably with some coffee and maybe a smoke

And to be fair I think the KISS/Judas Priest stuff was incredibly corny, too. I give Dickinson a pass because Bruce can get away with that shit. That man's a legend. I wouldn't criticize him if he performed 3 hours in a hot pink speedo on a winter day. He's Bruce fucking Dickinson.

 

[Power_Metal_Dom]

Dom cheers for sharing that, very interesting to read. Where is Chris' post from? Is it on Facebook?

Cheers, dude. Reddit

it's fun and well made music.

Exactly my feelings towards this gimmick stuff. If it's well composed and well executed on CD and live, then I love it. And the theatrics are just an extra lighthearted sprinkle on the top. I don't think elves and space wizards are quite the same level of cool as Priest's leather and bikes or Kiss makeup though! But then again they're just acting out typical power metal tropes present in a lot of great power metal - Blind Guardian, Rhapsody, Helloween etc and PQ of course !

 

[Marty_1994]

Cheers, dude. Reddit



Exactly my feelings towards this gimmick stuff. If it's well composed and well executed on CD and live, then I love it. And the theatrics are just an extra lighthearted sprinkle on the top. I don't think elves and space wizards are quite the same level of cool as Priest's leather and bikes or Kiss makeup though! But then again they're just acting out typical power metal tropes present in a lot of great power metal - Blind Guardian, Rhapsody, Helloween etc and PQ of course !

+1!

 

[Kingface]

I just think the backing track thing has gotten ridiculous, as proven by the quote in Dom's post up there. Why even bother playing the music if you have to go through so many backing tapes, process everything through a computer, and basically rely on those to carry the rest of the band?

Obviously I'm hypocritical because I love bands like Rhapsody that have to use it but I think Rhapsody has far more integrity in the music (and knowing that originally they weren't even meant to be a live performing band in the first place, if I recall correctly)... I'd have to really sit down and think this issue through, preferably with some coffee and maybe a smoke

And to be fair I think the KISS/Judas Priest stuff was incredibly corny, too. I give Dickinson a pass because Bruce can get away with that shit. That man's a legend. I wouldn't criticize him if he performed 3 hours in a hot pink speedo on a winter day. He's Bruce fucking Dickinson.

Regarding Judas Priest, some of it is important in my opinion. I don't ever wanna see a Judas Priest show where Rob Halford doesn't have a moment where he's in his biker gear on the Harley and 'Hell Bent for Leather' gets played.

 

[Thematt202]

I'm not generally into the fantasy metal stuff, however, I just listened to "To the Stars" and enjoyed it very much. Good old power metal, the likes of which seems to be in rather short supply these days.

Btw, I'm a 33 year old married father of one - probably not the target market either. Didn't stop me from grinning along though.