Claim The Throne, a folk metal band hailing all the way from Australia, are back with their third full-length release Forged In Flame, which takes a slightly darker and heavier approach to their previous work.
After a lively acoustic introduction that leads into the full band joining in near the end, the album gets off to a roaring start with its first full-length track The World Grows Dull. With a huge and epic introduction before the vocals even begin, it gives a great first impression as to how the rest of the album will sound. The track seems a little familiar somehow and has a slight ‘early Ensiferum’ feel to it, but it still somehow has its own unique style – which is some feat.
A Grand Destruction is another fantastic piece of songwriting. With gloriously epic sections with growly singalong parts and soft minimalistic parts, this song has it all and definitely seems like one to be added to the “live” pile. This is one to get the crowd moving and similarly, to say that Serpent And The Star is a song made for a live environment is a bit of an understatement. It’s one of those tracks that is simply begging for one of those mosh pits sometimes seen at folk metal shows with everyone dancing like crazy! With some amazingly strong and powerful vocals, and awesome instrumentation to boot, this is another highlight of the album.
At The Oceans Edge is quite an adventurous track, veering away from the general style of the rest of the album and taking more of an acoustic approach. Although they took an acoustic route with earlier track In The Mist, this one was a full length number, but it still sounds exactly like Claim The Throne. The thing that’s good about these “quieter” tracks is that they nicely divide the album into sections and it’s great to have a break between the furious headbanging and fist-pumping to be done to all the other tracks!
Keeping on the subject of headbanging and fist-pumping, the following track Essence Of A Scorched Realm is one of the noisiest and catchiest of the album. It feels like you’re being smacked in the face with a wall of powerful guitar and the track as a whole is just under five minutes of sheer awesome noise. I dare you to try and keep still to this one.
In Blood Be Sworn is the epic of the album. Starting off with a soft introduction, it almost lulls you into a false sense of security before the keys and guitars properly get going, and from then on, it’s just onwards and upwards. Sometimes, longer tracks have a tendency to drag and repeat themselves, but this happily isn’t the case with this one – it keeps your attention from start to finish and is well worth a few listens in order for you to fully absorb it all.
As the album comes to an end with a beautifully arranged piano piece entitled Chronicle, you can’t help but feel a sense of accomplishment. Forged In Flame truly is a superb piece of work and is very much deserving of a perfect score.
10/10.
Preorder the album from their bigcartel page now!
