Emerald Sun – Regeneration (2011)

Hailing from Greece, next up in our review queue is Emerald Sun’s third full-length album “Regenration”. While Emerald Sun is nowhere near the ‘original’ category, this band does a killer job in crafting Power Metal songs with an old school vibe.

“Regeneration” features nearly 50 minutes of very enjoyable and flawlessly executed music that can surely please the most demanding fans of the genre. Of particular interest in this CD we have a cover of Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding out for a Hero” song which is pretty entertaining to say the least.

Starting the album we have a very tight “We Won’t Fall”, in this track we easily hear all of the band’s musical weapons: great male vocals, tight drumming, excellent production and solid guitar and keyboard solos. In “Theater of Pain” we have a ‘happier’ sound that reminds us of countless other Power Metal bands, but the execution of the song makes us forget and pay full attention to Emerald Sun’s music.

One thing to notice is that the band never abuses the technical abilities and they craft songs as a band, never sacrificing their sound for moments of self-indulgence of the members. While some people might shy away from this, we think it shows Emerald Sun works as a unit and does not need to ‘impress’ people with individual spotlights.

Our favorite song of this release has to be “Starchild” and its early Stratovarius sound. In this track we also have some more atmospheric keyboards that greatly make this little gem shine. The old school vibe of “Planet Metal” makes it our second favorite track since it has all the elements we love about Power/Heavy metal from the early 90’s. To show that Emerald Sun can craft epic and monumental songs, we have “Fantasmagoria”. In this track we feel the band went all out and created a very entertaining track, and if this shows the direction where the band is going in the future, we can’t wait for the next album.

Overall, if you are a Power Metal fan and have a sweet spot for the ‘older’ albums and bands, you will love “Regeneration”. Emerald Sun has all the elements that a great band needs and we can only hope they get more exposure with this excellent release. So strop picking your nose and head over to the website of Pitch Black Records to get this release.

Release: February 11th, 2011

Country: Greece