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Revue par
Marty
Forgotten Tales – All The
Sinners
Forgotten Tales hails from Quebec City, Quebec,
Canada and was originally formed in 1999 as a female vocalist fronted tribute band
playing European power metal with the goal of introducing Canadians to a style
of metal that has been popular for years in Europe but has only recently began
to catch on in Canada and the rest of North America. This is due mostly to a
lack of promotion and availability of many of the best releases in the genre.
Being a Canadian myself, I've had to rely on the internet and the many great
mail-order sites to get the best power metal releases but things are looking up
as many of the larger CD store chains are now beginning to stock the new
releases by many of the more popular bands. After opening for Nightwish
in
The influences of bands like Rhapsody,
Stratovarius, Angra and Helloween are front and center
with Forgotten Tales and the lyrics and subject matter are pure epic
fantasy; a style that is so prominent amongst many of today's power metal
bands. The European speedy style is prevalent through most of Forgotten
Tales' music but they do mix up the tempos and styles to keep things
interesting. The album begins with a 6 part epic entitled The Pagan
Chronicles and gets underway with an orchestrated intro with narration
before ripping into part two, The Lady Of The
Forest. The speedy Euro-style double bass drum power metal jumps right out at
you. The drumming is fast and tight and the overall production is much thicker
and more clearer than the band's previous album. Lead
vocalist Sonia Pineault has a great strong voice and unlike bands like Nightwish,
she doesn't sing with an operatic style. Sounding like a cross between
There's not much that's new or
innovative here but Forgotten Tales is a quality band that plays very
solid power metal. Most of the musicians in the band have some form of formal classical
training and it really shows in the band's overall performances. The
songwriting and sound of the band is vastly improved over The Promise
album but I think that a little more work is needed to really solidify the
songwriting process. Having a female lead singer opens the doors somewhat but
it also has its limitations. Call me old-school but a female vocalist fronting
a power metal band should not try to sing in the same style as a guy would. The
female voice has many unique characteristics that should be taken advantage of.
Sonia's voice just soars on many of the tracks on this album but in a couple of
instances she seems to be straining. The mid-tempo tracks have a more
passionate vocal style that more suits Sonia's voice. Although the music of Forgotten
Tales bears very little resemblance to Nightwish, they may want to
take a look at how that band has evolved and used the uniqueness of Tarja's
voice to become one of the more popular power metal bands in the world right
now. Although Forgotten Tales has a keyboard player, you really don't
hear him that much. Aside from some of the piano and harpsichord sections, the
keyboards are usually just background orchestrations. Seeing that this is only
a 1 guitar band and there's lots of lead harmonies and
doubled-up guitar tracks on this album, a more up-front keyboard sound would be
an absolute necessity especially in a live situation if the band wants to be
able to properly reproduce all the power and passion of the studio versions of
their songs. There's still lots of room to grow with
this band and they have proven themselves to be very capable musicians. The
task at hand now is to hone their craft and continue working towards giving
themselves a more unique identity in the crowded power metal genre. It's really
great to be writing about a Canadian power metal band for a
change.....there is hope..........
Note : 7,6/10