ALBUM REVIEW: Valley Of Kings – The Wise Man’s Fear
Being creative when it comes to metal can sometimes be difficult, but ‘Fantasycore’ involves taking heavy music and merging it with storytelling. Indiana-based band THE WISE MAN’S FEAR, have perfected this style, mixing immersive fantasy into a concoction of metal, deathcore, and alternative music. Their new album, Valley Of The Kings, manages to blend all these elements and create something pretty special.
Opening song, The Relics Of Nihlux, starts off with a really cool scene-setting intro which then drops into some really impactful uncleans. It’s definitely a hard hitting introduction to the band if you haven’t heard their previous work, and when it reaches the chorus composed of complimentary cleans, it displays the range that this band can undertake. The powerful rhythms combined with the low tuned guitar and bass riffs further solidify this track.
Breath Of The Wild follows, and it doesn’t mess around. Straight into some really nice cleans with enjoyable melodies, we are then given some uncleans that reinforce the presence that this song has. The really cool technique of adding in some intermittent high guitar notes throughout the chorus really adds something interesting to the tone of the song. Finishing off the song is a really neat keyboard section, which flows straight into the next track Tree Of Life, creating this storytelling aspect that is part of the band’s identity. This technique makes the album really enjoyable to listen to fully played through, as it doesn’t feel so jumpy. The songs on this album also involve a lot of imagery lyrically, which makes the whole listening experience more enjoyable. Standing out from this song in particular is the section where they have some flute music, combined with some blunt uncleans resulting in a really cool contrast.
The Cave displays some really strong contributions from all members of the band, involving heavy vocals and growls that leave a lasting impression from Joseph Sammuel, fast and impactful drum beats from Paul Lierman, catchy riffs from guitarists Codi Chambers and Nathan Kane and bassist Thomas Barham, and of course the smooth vocals from clean vocalist Tyler Eads. Some bands struggle to transition well and make clean vocals work in a heavy song that also includes uncleans, but THE WISE MAN’S FEAR have definitely done this well. Title track Valley Of Kings includes some electronic elements in this unbelievably catchy track which features a really sweet section where clean and unclean vocals switch back and forth, again showing that this band knows how to place these styles together without them sounding out of place.
What would have been nice to have heard in this album is some more defined breakdowns of sorts, as we definitely get that feeling of heaviness with most of the tracks throughout, but in the softer song of the album, The River And The Rock, it would have been really cool to have had a truly unexpected breakdown in there.
Overall, Valley of Kings is really enjoyable, with its fantasy storytelling mixed with heavy music influenced by multiple genres and combo of cleans and uncleans, it has the potential to be a very well liked release.
Rating: 8/10
Valley of Kings is set for release on May 29th via SharpTone Records.
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