Of Dragons And Elves, the debut album from German newcomes Evertale, is everything you may expect from a power metal album. With big showy guitar lines and clean male vocals that are somewhat typical of the genre, there certainly isn’t any surprises to be found with this release but for what it is, it’s a rather fantastic listen with a lot of substance to it.
Tale Of The Everman is an early highlight of the album and opens with slightly distorted spoken male vocals that give the song an air of mystery before the band joins in for good measure with this great meaty guitar line. The chorus is particularly powerful as well, one of those lines that seems made for being sang along to live. The Crownguard’s Quest is another great inclusion, a track brimming with energy and plenty of showy guitar lines for good measure.
However, at fourteen tracks long, Of Dragons And Elves is a little on the lengthy side and would perhaps benefit from dropping a few of the weaker tracks and yes, it isn’t the most original of albums – but it is their debut after all, so there’s bound to be a few elements where there’s room for improvement. But with a bit of tweaking, and after Evertale have found their own sound, they could well become one of the big names in power metal – at the very least, the raw materials are there for this band to go very far.
7/10
