Twilight Force - At The Heart of Wintervale (2023)

There are just some days when you just want to hear an album filled with over-the-top technical wizardry, lush vocal arrangements, and an overall superbly up-beat vibe. Luckily for us, Twilight Force delivers just that, and plenty more, with the epic “At The Hearth of Wintervale”. We have a soft spot for extremely bombastic Symphonic Power Metal, and this album unleashes over 64 minutes of magical music in this regard.

Opening with the lush “Twilight Force” track, we instantly get rewarded with blistering guitar solos, crafty tempo changes, and very dramatic vocal arrangements. Vocalist Allyon, aka Alessandro Conti, shines through this release, but in particular in epic songs like “At the Heart of Wintervale”, filled with soaring vocal passages. We particularly love that epic vibe that bands like Stratovarius, Rhapsody, and similar outfits craft, but with Twilight Force, this effort is poured into every single track, particularly heavy hitters like “Dragonborn”, and the cinematic 10-minute epic “Highlands of the Elder Dragon”.

For those looking more into the symphonic side of things, the lush “Skynights of Aldaria” and “Sunlight Knight”, one of our favorites, brilliantly deliver. The band’s epicness is so seamless that you might think a song starts slow, but it will usually gradually build momentum until it delivers epic instrumental passages and very lively atmospherics. The release also features two orchestral versions of some of the best tracks in this album, namely “Skinights of Aldaria” and “The Last Crystal Bearer”.

Overall, “At The Heart of Wintervale” is yet another superbly epic release from Twilight Force, once that showcases all the band’s creativity and brilliant execution. Paired with a top-notch production, this is one of the best sounding Power Metal releases we have heard in quite a while, and this is something serious as usually bands in the genre pay extra attention to this. If you want a vibrant epic ride, full of soaring vocals and killer instrumentation, look no further and get a copy of this release.

Label: Nuclear Blast Records

Release: January 20th, 2023

Genre: Symphonic Power Metal

Country: Sweden