METAL CRYPT

Reviewed by Pierre Bégin

Forgotten Tales - The Promise

Here is the first album by Forgotten Tales, a promising new power metal talent from Quebec, Canada. This band has only been around since last year but the talented musicians have played in various bands for many years. There are 6 members: Sonia Pineault (vocals), Martin Desharnais and Alex Therrien (guitars), Pat Vir (bass), Cédric Prévost (drums) and Frédérick Desroches (keyboard). It's René Pineault, their manager and Sonia's brother, who formed this band to do a tribute show to promote the great power metal bands from Europe like Edguy, Blind Guardian, Stratovarius, HammerFall, Gamma Ray, Helloween, Rhapsody, Labyrinth and so on. It turned out so well that the band decided to carry on and record this album and transform Forgotten Tales into a real band.

The 45 minutes CD contains ten songs, the last four are a story named "The Tales Of Neeris". The first thing that amazes me is the sound recorded by Pierre Rémillard. A veritable tour-de-force considering that the band recorded it in a big rush due to a restricted budget! It really proves the true professionalism of this band. Frontwoman Sonia sings very well all over the album. She has a very powerful and emotional voice and uses it efficiently. The album starts with a typically power metal intro with lots of keyboards. Next is Word Of Truth, which contains some nice high pitched vocals in the chorus, one of my preferred song on the album along with Far Away, a very emotional ballad about the loss of a dear being and Endless Dream (part III of The Tales Of Neeris) with its solid heavy part after the chorus. Martin Desharnais, who has a music diploma, composed mainly all songs on this album and all the guitar parts as well (Alex, the other guitarist, joined the band later).

The compositions are very technical, often fast but also mid-tempo and slow, and Sonia puts her heart and soul into them. The influences are for sure the European power metal bands mentioned above plus Nightwish, but the band have found their own identity among them. The lyrics are very well-written with the usual power metal themes like true values and fantasy. The package and the cover look very professional. Overall, a very good first album for this Quebec power metal band. Forgotten Tales has all the potential to reach the status of the power metal gods from Europe.

Note : 4,5/5