Although Heroes Of Vallentor is by no means a new project, having formed almost ten years ago, Warriors Path Part I is the debut full-length album from the band, having been several years in the making.
As a whole, it’s a fairly difficult listen and what doesn’t help is the long and drawn-out spoken introduction. Everything all sounds a little awkward, like the vocalist is just speaking at anyone who’ll listen, rather than captivating listeners with a story, and you find yourself wanting it all to be over the more it drags on. However, the track that follows, title track Warriors Path, isn’t much of an improvement; it almost feels like the band is trying to emulate Ensiferum but the vocals seem out-of-place and like they don’t fit with the instrumentation. There’s not much power behind them and sound rather forced, which is quite unfortunate.
That’s not to say the release has no redeeming features, however, because Lord Of Fire has a gripping introduction and a guitar solo that can only really be described as ‘majestic’ and The Forlorn Watchman is a welcome bit of fresh air, an atmospheric and chilled-back number that divides up the album very well and shows another side to the band.
As a whole, Warriors Path Part I is nothing to really shout about. Whilst it does have potential, it’s an all-round difficult listen to get into and doesn’t really manage to hold your interest as a result.
4/10
Heroes Of Vallentor: Facebook
Sadly Natalie, you missed whole point of true epic heavy metal here.
You rally compare band who`s mainly influences are Manowar and Wizard to viking metal for school pupils like Ensiferum?
You didn`t understood this album. Shame.