German power metal band IGNITION will be releasing their third new album “Vengeance” on September 15, 2023. And this time METAL OPERA had the opportunity to listen to this full album before it was released. The first impression starts from the cover artwork with a viking carrying a sword, which is indeed one of the characters in power metal music in general. From here the atmosphere to expect their music on this album starts to appear and makes me even more impatient to listen to all the songs on this album right away.
And immediately, this album opens with the first song “Ignite The Fire” a song with heavy metal rhythms and drums that feels a little thrashy and the heavy and powerful vocal character of Dennis Marschallik, reminds me the character of the voices of Hansi Kursch (BLIND GUARDIAN), or Jens Carlsson (SAVAGE CIRCUS, PERSUADER). The guitar melodies are strong, especially on the chorus and solos, and the drums are fast and powerful, making it feel more manly and mighty.
The second song “The Wounds That Causes The Pain“, the tempo drops slightly in this second song, but it feels more melodic with a catchy chorus and accompanied by a guitar melody along the chorus making this song worthy of being included in a typical melodic power metal song, and with combined with heavy and powerful vocals. Then “Adrenaline“, after I listened to this song in its entirety, I felt the smell and taste of the music of the Florida’s power thrash metal band, ICED EARTH. For ICED EARTH fans, this song can become one of their followers, but it is combined with Dennis Marschallik‘s voices, which feels heavier and more powerful.
The song “Beastmode” opens with a guitar rhythm that feels a little bit of metalcore music or maybe it’s easier to describe it with TRIVIUM‘s typical music combined with a power metal guitar melodies and a chorus that feels manly and wild, a fast and rough guitar solos. The tension rises with the song “Kingdom Of Lies“, with a strong guitar melody and thunderous drums that immediately open this song, and again Dennis’s voice feels powerful and heavy and feels layered accompanied by double bass drums, guitar melodies throughout the chorus and guitar solos which is rough and quite short and seems to be the most powerful song on the “Vengeance” album.
The sixth song is titled “A New Dawn“, a song that feels quite relaxed but slowly goes up in tempo as it enters the chorus with a beautiful chorus for sing along and what I like most about this song is the solo part which is very melodic and occasionally the tempo goes down and back rises beautifully, making this song feel dynamic.
Thrashy, the first word that came to my mind when I first heard this song called “The Rise” and felt a little closer to the typical metalcore music, and again, if I may say today’s American metal, what I pictured was TRIVIUM with a vocalist version that heavier.
The eighth track “A Dark Fate” is quite an epic instrument song and it is followed by “Betrayal”, a song that opens with a melodic rhythm mixed with fast and powerful drums, Dennis’ heavy vocals add strength to this song and a strong chorus and feels more emotional with the accompaniment of a strong rhythm without stopping and being hit continuously with thumping drums and double bass drums throughout the song. It continues with the song “We Were The Shieldwall“, starting with rhythm and contortions of guitar and music that still feels quite thrash and occasionally feels a little progressive but feels brutal in the solo part and Dennis’ screams seem to be getting closer to the character of Hansi Kursch‘s voices just towards the end of this song.
Tempo came back down with the song “The Funeral” with a seductive melody, quite a catchy rhythm and a guitar melody accompanying the vocalist, if I could say I feel this song is a kind of mix between BLIND GUARDIAN with SAVAGE CIRCUS and SINBREED. A very beautiful and melodic guitar solo and a light chorus for the sing along. I think this is the most beautiful and melodic song on the album.
As the closing track “The Final Hour“, a melodic power metal song with a thrash rhythm and a beautiful guitar melody accompanies the chorus and occasional fast and tight double bass drums. The solo part is fast and full of guitar melodies until the end of the song makes this song a proper closing song to climax the listeners.
Overall, the album “Vengeance” presents a powerful thrash power metal music character with strong guitar and rhythm melodies, dynamic and powerful thumping drums. For me personally, this album is a combination of several bands with strong characters and from two different continents, and it’s a smart combination. I recommend this album for fans of bands like BLIND GUARDIAN, ICED EARTH, ORDEN OGAN, SAVAGE CIRCUS, PERSUADER, TRIVIUM or SINBREED.
LINE UP:
Dennis Marschallik – Lead Vocals
Christian Bruckschen – Guitars
Sebastian Ernst – Guitars
Andreas Leyer – Bass
Lukas Leuuw – Drums
TRACKLIST:
01. Ignite The Fire 03:31
02. The Wounds That Cause The Pain 04:45
03. Adrenaline 04:33
04. Beastmode 05:03
05. Kingdom of Lies 03:46
06. A New Dawn 05:30
07. The Rise 03:45
08. A Dark Fate 01:22
09. Betrayal 05:31
10. We Were The Shieldwall 04:05
11. The Funeral 04:35
12. The Final Hour 03:39
SCORE:
Music: 8
Production: 8
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ignitionmetalmusic
Bandcamp: https://ignitionmetalmusic.bandcamp.com/
