Northern Crown : "In a Pallid Shadow"

I do not review a great deal of power metal here. It is not because I like it and before I leave a long explanation of what not I will sum it up very quickly...it's not dark enough . This band takes elements of doom to fix that problem. Then they sound like Dio jaming with Uriah Heap . The riff to the first song reminds me of "Warmachine " by Kiss . The vocals are more power metal and the keyboards pushes them further in a Evergray direction. Where this works where power metal fails more often than not is this is darker. There is more melody infused in the song writing of the darkly more majestic "the Last Snowfall" , not sure how unholy snow is falling, so the lyrics are where these guys could stand to tighten up a bit. The pace of this one is more deliberate, but the doom influence seems to keep them from galloping off at every turn.

They lose the momentum on the ballad " Vivid Monochrome". It has just enough distortion in it's build up to qualify as a power ballad. "8 Hours" still pretty close to the altar of classic metal, with the keys dialed up in the mix. This dude has a decent enough voice he flirts with the lower end of his range in an attempt to sound more menacing. Granted the bar is pretty high as to what sounds menacing here given the amount of more extreme metal I cover. This song is however despite it's cool riffs less hooky vocally. There are moments where it makes me think of Candlemass. By the end of the song he goes up into his upper range. Given the fact that King Diamond is my favorite metal singer I do love a good metal yodel.

The last song finds them taking more of a prog turn at first as it opens with a keyboard solo. The song has a lot of power. Is it heavy? That depends on how you define heavy. It is very dynamic. During it's nine and a half minutes they back a great deal into it. Six and half minutes in the break everythin down into a more ballad like tone before cranking it back up again. I will give this one an 8.5 . If you are really into power metal round it up to a 9/