Shadows Past
Perfect Chapter
DooLittle Group
2013
Shadows Past is a young band from Sweden that has started its course since 2005. It wasn’t until 2009 when the band started writing & recording songs for what was meant to be their debut release. By the end of 2011 everything was ready to go and they guys chose wisely to work with Erik Martensson (Eclipse, W.E.T., Seventh Wonder etc.) for the album’s mixing & mastering. Erik, as always, did a wonderful job and delivered a very good sound largely.
Shadows Past are a Euro power metal band with symphonic passages and a handful of extreme ones. I really do not get what the (hardly any) brutal vocals offer but if the guys like ‘em then it’s more than okay. The band’s major influences are Euro power metal bands like Helloween, Stratovarius, Gamma Ray, Masterplan, Nocturnal Rites & Edguy inter alia. The singer Ola Halen has a fairly good voice and the guitarist is also quite good, as well as the other guys but there’s a problem on the songwriting. I know the guys are young and they can do better in the near future for they truly seem to love this kind of music. The main issue is the lack of personality and originality. They sound, most of the times, like the bands they have been influenced by, and not like a band that has taken its own way. Yeap, there are a bunch of extenuations on that so I’ll take ‘em under consideration. I do prefer them more when they step on the melodic metal side like on “An Old Enemy”.
“Perfect Chapter” may not offer anything new to the Euro power metal scene but it is honest and everything has been done with love. As I have said before, and I’ll always say, we must not disappoint guys that live and breathe for this kind of music but rather assist them to avoid any wrong turns and come back stronger. Another thing they should take better care of is the melodies as this kind of music needs strong and catchy melodies. Hope to see them come up with a second album in the near future…
Shadows Past are a Euro power metal band with symphonic passages and a handful of extreme ones. I really do not get what the (hardly any) brutal vocals offer but if the guys like ‘em then it’s more than okay. The band’s major influences are Euro power metal bands like Helloween, Stratovarius, Gamma Ray, Masterplan, Nocturnal Rites & Edguy inter alia. The singer Ola Halen has a fairly good voice and the guitarist is also quite good, as well as the other guys but there’s a problem on the songwriting. I know the guys are young and they can do better in the near future for they truly seem to love this kind of music. The main issue is the lack of personality and originality. They sound, most of the times, like the bands they have been influenced by, and not like a band that has taken its own way. Yeap, there are a bunch of extenuations on that so I’ll take ‘em under consideration. I do prefer them more when they step on the melodic metal side like on “An Old Enemy”.
“Perfect Chapter” may not offer anything new to the Euro power metal scene but it is honest and everything has been done with love. As I have said before, and I’ll always say, we must not disappoint guys that live and breathe for this kind of music but rather assist them to avoid any wrong turns and come back stronger. Another thing they should take better care of is the melodies as this kind of music needs strong and catchy melodies. Hope to see them come up with a second album in the near future…