ALBUM REVIEW: Hermitage – Daruma’s Eyes Pt. 2 – Temperance
If you like your metal to make Broadway sound like a DIY production, TEMPERANCE have got you covered. On this, their seventh album, they enlist some genre all-stars to help tell the tale of a protagonist transported to a magical village by a Japanese doll. It is completely over the top and packed full of pomp, and mileage will vary depending on one’s tolerance for hair metal-howls and metalised musical theatre.
Fans of having a story to headbang along to will be in their element, as each song explores the village of Hermitage and the characters found there. Powerhouse newcomer Kristin Starkey is a welcome addition to the band – her first recording with TEMPERANCE, along with drummer Marco Sacchetto – trading vocals with bandmates Michele Guaitoli and Marco Pastorino, and Fabienne Erni (ELUVEITIE, ILLUMISHADE), Laura Fella (FAUN), Alessandro Conti (TWILIGHT FORCE), and Arjen Lucassen (AYREON) acting as narrator. More than anything, the band’s scale and ambition shine through on Hermitage – Daruma’s Eyes Pt 2, which succeeds more often than not.
Moving through moods and influences, the standout section comes a third of the way in where folk metal sounds come to the fore. Welcome To Hermitage sounds custom built to be strummed around a campfire, and helps some of the fantasy come to life through a less-is-more approach. It is followed by No Return, a jauntier number complete with a bounce-along chorus that is heavily indebted to celtic melodies. When they go full anthemic on Join Me they sound at the peak of their powers, as vocalists trade verses and converge for a soaring refrain over an adrenaline-pumping bass drum pulse.
Other tracks are more of a Rorschach test. While A Hero Reborn might be a bit too cheesy for some, others will appreciate that it would sound at home in Disney’s Hercules, a song made for clenching one’s fists and resolving to fight on. Ditto In Search Of Gold which sees our protagonist wandering confused and lost, an earnest duet that rewards those committed to the record’s mythology.
Occasionally, the need to move the story along feels a little clunky. Spoken word passages are appropriately dramatic, but lines like “our victory came at a high price, we lost many friends, I had to send the person I cared the most into exile, now he is trying to come back and reclaim his place” lack poetry. This is a record overflowing with spoken and sung narrative, at times at the expense of musicality. When it all coalesces, like on opener Daruma, it’s magical: a powerful chorus of voices sets an epic stage without sacrificing an earworm of a hook.
These are 14 bombastic tracks, and all of them are performed without an ironic wink or with anything less than 100%. Metal is naturally a genre full of drama and larger-than-life performances, and here TEMPERANCE have taken that quite literally, assembling a cast, creating a world and constructing their own folklore. When it all comes together, it really does rouse like the most marvellous of showstoppers.
Rating: 7/10
Hermitage – Daruma’s Eyes Pt. 2 is set for release on October 20th via Napalm Records.
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