STYLE: Hard Music RATING OUR PRODUCT CODE: 159946-23680 LABEL: Ulterium FORMAT: CD Album ITEMS: 1
Reviewed by Andy Shaw
Formed in Senec, Slovakia in 2007, Signum Regis have been building up a reputation for producing guitar-heavy, passionate power metal. Their reputation was further enhanced in 2015 with victory in the Czech Republic based Spark Fresh Blood contest. As the title suggests, 'Chapter IV: The Reckoning' is Signum Regis' fourth album and it includes all the hallmarks that have served the band well to date leaning on heavy riffs and shredding, technical guitar solos. The album soon gets up to full throttle and rarely lets its foot off the gas through to the slow burning closing track "Bells Are Tolling", drawing on more progressive influences leaving you some space to reflect and recover from the onslaught that came before. There is enough in this record to set it apart from the pool of power metal bands with limited use of keys and synth allowing the heavy riffing guitars to stand out on their own. That is not to say that they abandon the synth altogether, with tracks like "Prophet Of Doom" building up layers of synth to give depth and an almost ominous feel to the track before ripping in to another impressive guitar solo. Whilst there is little letup in the tempo, the song structures do provide variety with a number of instrumental interludes woven into songs like "The Voice In The Wilderness". The vocals are strong, showing off an impressive range from the powerful symphonic vocals of "Lost And Found" to the softer melodic closing track. Overall this is a good album from a band that are not the finished article but are definitely showing signs of improving all the time.
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