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A few years ago I stumbled across the first full length from Canadian melodic power metallers Borealis, entitled World Of Silence, and was blown away. The album showed a band far more mature than the limited discography would suggest and it promised great things for the future. Well, the future is now upon us as Borealis present Fall From Grace!
Borealis does not have your typical melodic power metal sound. Shades of Evergrey style progressive metal permeate every song with a good helping of the heavy sound of Firewind. Of course the icing on the cake is that every instrument is played to perfection. Singer / Guitarist Matt Marinelli has a great voice so full of passion a la Roy Khan (ex-Kamelot). However, his voice is more grounded in a way similar to Chitral 'Chity' Somapala (Power Quest, ex-Firewind) rather than the soaring heights of many of the genre's singers. With the undeniably heavy sounding guitars and pounding drums this can only be seen as a good thing.
Where this album falls down slightly is in the similar sounding songs. I felt the debut (which I view as an almost perfect album) offered more variation and it is for this reason alone that I don't think the follow-up is quite as good. However, that isn't to say that it doesn't have its highlights. In fact, the opener Finest Hour is certainly one of Borealis' finest moments!
This is an excellent album from a band that is sure to have a great career ahead of them. One to check out if you're a fan of any form of melodic metal!
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