ALBUM REVIEW: We Will Rise – Tungsten

One of the newer bands to emerge from Sweden, TUNGSTEN who arrive with their debut record We Will Rise. The band were formed in 2016 by ex-HAMMERFALL drummer Anders Johansson after he listened to some songs written and composed by his sons Karl and Nick, who join TUNGSTEN on bass and guitar respectively, while the group are completed with vocalist Mike Andersson who is most notable for his time with CLOUDSCAPE, PLANET ALLIANCE and FULLFORCE.

It is the title track that begins proceedings for the maiden album. The intro consists of a gentle piano solo, with panpipes accompanying the keys shortly into it and gives you them impression you’re being whisked off to a magical mysterious land. Just as you’re getting settled into the harmonious intro, things take a dramatic twist and out of nowhere the riffs kick in at breakneck speed and the track turns on a sixpence. Mike’s powerful vocals add to the atmosphere and everything comes together in one package to deliver that classic power metal feel and sound.

The Fairies Dance was released as a single prior to the release of the full-length record, which starts off in a similar fashion to the title track. There is a gentle keyboard intro, which again gives that sense of being somewhere mystical with the high-pitched nature of the keys, only for the riffs to come into play and take the track in a completely different direction. The keys come into play with the rest of the music shortly afterwards, and there are certainly more techno aspects which are implemented.

The tech elements certainly have more prominence in some of the tracks compared to others, and one where it is much more distinct to the others is Animals. Within the opening few seconds you have a sound similar to the 8-bit style of retro video games, which add another dimension to TUNGSTEN‘s overall music sound. There are other tech sounds which feature in this particular track, and the guitars get even heavier which when you combine it all together gives an intriguing mix.

It is hard to determine what genre you would class TUNGSTEN as; there are so many different elements used in all of their songs that it doesn’t really stick to a particular genre or even sub-genre, but there is no doubt that this is heavy metal.

There’s something for everyone which makes it one of the unique selling points of We Will Rise – there’s classic power metal which provide a bit of a throwback, there’s generic heavy metal and then there’s those more modern elements which come into play more in the second half of the album.

When it comes to We Will Rise you have to listen to it with an open mind, you can’t really expect it to sound a particular way as each track is different to the previous, and it is full of twists and surprises to keep you on your toes, and that’s what makes it enjoyable and worth picking up.

Rating: 7/10

We Will Rise is out now via Arising Empire.

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