Emerald Sun are recycling power metal here. That's nothing new since I've heard countless bands and albums who do that and end up getting nothing more from me but second-hand embarrassment. Makes me wonder how many of these I haven't heard... Anyway, ES hail from Greece and 'Escape from Twilight' is the second edition of their debut full-length album. I only have this one which I got for a very cheap price about a decade ago. I'm doing some shelf-cleaning, and I picked this up. What happened? Let's find out!

ES go from happy vibes to heroic stuff, and to some darker vibes, as is finely illustrated by the absolutely awesome cover artwork. The band go many ways, and mix big amount of mostly legendary bands in their music. This is one of those "oh, this sounds like that album, and that sounds like this band" albums. The main thing that makes ES so much better than those failed bands in power metal circles is the fact that this sounds like it's coming from their hearts. They do not ape it, they live it. Looks like they have just released their 6th album, and that shows their passion and love for this all. I do not like the most foul-smelling, maggot crawling cloister cheese, and ES definitely stay beyond that line.

I am going to pick up some bits and bobs around the album to depict the band's approach. So there will probably be something left out, I'm sure about it, but here we go. After a cheesy introduction, 'Scream out Loud' goes into 1980's Helloween gear: It has that 'Eagle Fly Free' vibe written all over it with majestic melodies via lead guitars and royal keyboards, backed by tight rhythm guitar and rhythm section work, with some soaring vocals. 'High in the Sky' adds some Scandinavian flavours in, tributing Stratovarius (as generally everything neoclassical on the album) and Hammerfall. Gentler parts on songs like 'The Traveller' and Freedom Call-ish 'Eyes of Prophecy' bring in 1970's vibes à la Scorpions and Rainbow; then again, mini-epic 'Emerald Sun' contains a very Iron Maiden-esque slow part, like coming from the epic 'Alexander the Great'! 'The Story Begins' has that bard-like Blind Guardian aura to it with its fantasy mood (with added flute/whistle sounds and acoustic guitars galore). And without any surprise, the end comes with a soft piano-driven ballad, which sounds a bit too AOR for this album. But before that, we get shredding 'H.M.', an anthem for heavy metal, which happens to be anything but embarrassing.

Loads of rapid riffing, huge lead guitar melodies, tasty soloing, and varying and distinct bass guitar work (if you love Michael Grosskopf or Steve Harris, you're going to love this) from stringed instruments. The drums offer anything from fast double kick drumming to slower, more loose beats. The keyboards fluctuate, suiting with the moods, and let's not forget that able guitar-keyboard solo dueling. The vocals are like a mixture of Helloween and Gamma Ray veterans Michael Kiske, Kai Hansen and Ralf Scheepers, plus Freedom Call's Chris Bay, so high register work is on the menu a lot, but also is some yelping which does not get too annoying anyway. Most of the lyrics are about real life experiences, but there's always a small space for fantasy here and there. There's so much small tricks and variations in everything, that performances can be called as adventurous and "breathing with the flow".

'Escape from Twilight' is a very tastefully created piece of power metal. It is, mostly very, catchy, but the songs hardly follow that basic verse-bridge-chorus-repeat structure: There's twists in these tales and very nicely it all conjugates. Everything was credited for the whole 6-piece band, so even more kudos to them for this rather massive opus, that came out as sensible and not filled with tangled tales.

Well, I think it is time for me to start checking out those other albums now... Shame on me!

Rating: 8 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
02/17/2022 12:06