It’s common to see euro metal bands embark upon melodic rock excursions. Members of Soilwork and Arch Enemy spend much of their time in The Night Flight Orchestra. Nightwish guitarist Emppu Vuorinen spent the better part of two decades moonlighting in Brother Firetribe. Hell, even Ghost, the brainchild of one time Repugnant frontman Tobias Forge, have transformed in the past decade from a sort of bastard spawn of Black Sabbath and Blue Öyster Cult to an amalgamation of 80s AOR, hard rock, and pop metal. The point I’m getting at is these types of pet projects aren’t too uncommon.
Now melodic rock bands starting euro metal projects? That’s another story, but it’s exactly this scenario we’re looking at today with the debut album from New Horizon, Gate of the Gods. Those in the melodic rock know are all too familiar with the duo of Erik Grönwall and Jona Tee. The former spent a decade fronting one of Sweden’s finest hard and heavy exports, H.E.A.T, while the latter still handles keyboard duties for the band. Although Grönwall left H.E.A.T two years ago, what hasn’t left is his desire to continue collaborating with Tee, albeit in a much different fashion than one would ever expect.
Gate of the Gods is about as straightforward, in your face, balls to the wall euro power metal that you could imagine. If you’re looking for songs with fantastical lyrics, absurd musicianship, and purposely overblown production (and I mean that in the kindest sense of the term), you’ve got it! Grönwall and Tee’s knack for melody comes in handy on the hooks and choruses of songs like “Cry for Freedom” and “The End of All”, but at not point does this album come off as anything remotely close to the H.E.A.T universe. In fact, even at it’s most melodic, it doesn’t even give off the “power AOR” vibes of early 90s Yngwie Malmsteen or Talisman. No, this record is a love letter to early 80s Yngwie, Helloween, Blind Guardian, Gamma Ray, and forth.
When they aren’t laying down this meat and potatoes power metal that dominates the release, New Horizon throw in blasts of speed and thrash to make things entertaining for both our necks and eardrums. The unrelenting ferocious steel of “Stardust” and “Fearless” evoke shadows of Thundersteel era Riot, which is always a good thing in my book. “Event Horizon” incorporates aggressive thrash riffing hellbent on getting heads banging and fists pumping. As if this doesn’t stir up the pot enough, the 7 minute closing title track sees the band indulging in prog metal, flexing their epic compositional muscles with all their might.
I usually don’t care for this particular brand of power metal, but New Horizon had made it highly enjoyable for myself and likely many others that share the same sentiment. For H.E.A.T fans who are intimidated by anything heavier than Judas Priest, I recommend you pick this album up, if only to hear Grönwall’s greatest vocal performance to date. Mind you, I don’t say that lightly. Besides maybe Pride of Lions’ Toby Hitchcock (who’s his own beast), I don’t think there’s a single singer today belting out with such tenacity and brute force. Hey, that could be the title of the next New Horizon album: Tenacity and Brute Force! Feel free to send the next royalty check my way boys!
7 out of 10
Label: Frontiers Records
Genre: Power Metal
For fans of: Helloween, Gamma Ray, Thundersteel era Riot