Achelous – The Icewind Chronicles Review

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Here’s a band that puts emotion as the most important thing in the world. The world in this case means their music. All eight ttracks that this album “The Icewind Chronicles” is composed are based first on emotion. It also means that the grand and the pomp play an important role as well in the album. Imposed voices and melodic guitar lines are also present in here. Moreover, Achelous showcase a foot on Symphonic Metal with two tracks as “Mithril Hall” and “Outcast” that feature female vocals. This particular track have the most amazing voclas of the album. It’s nothing out of this world but the feeling Chris Kappas puts in his vocals are really something else. Something that really catches the eye. The guy really know how to overcome his technical limitations to give everything he’s got and achieve a marvelous outcome.

Musicwise “The Icewind Chronicles” is what may be called Melodic Epic Heavy Metal with some Symphonic Metal touches in the afortementioned tracks. As I said, the band deals very well with the amount of emotion they desire to pass to the fan. That makes the album incredible pleasant and satisfying to listen to. “Flames of War,” for instance, have that guitar riffing that the fan surely heard before, but the emotional package overcomes all the feelings and take on the song in a way that the fan will only remind of the emotion felt. In a way, if the vocals were a bit harsher, the album could be labeled as Melodic Death Metal. The melodic structures are very similar regarding to the melodic structures. The difference here is that Achelous are very proud of their Heavy Metal influences and they deal pretty well with all of them.

Lirically the ban explores the miths and tales related to R.A. Salvatore’s Icewind Dale trilogy. “Mithril Hall” is the most outstanding outcome of this influence though the taste of Tolkien’s universe is here yet. Endless epic battles and the joys of the long distant, and partially unknown, past are also present. Well, an album to remember for all those and much more.

Achelous “The Icewind Chronicles” will be released on March 18th via No Remorse Records.

Track Listing:

  1. Northern Winds
  2. Flames of War
  3. Savage King
  4. Mithril Hall
  5. The Crystal Shard
  6. Halfling’s Gem
  7. Face the Storm
  8. Outcast

Watch “Northern Winds” official lyric video here: