Flame Imperishable - Glory and Ruin Review

There are some albums that act like a musical rollercoaster for the ups and owns and the rapid change of mood. Some others are very hard to label due to the infinity of influences the band shows in the album. In this very particular case the influences aren’t that many but the way they are put here beats me. Here not only the vocals but the instrumentals are with lots of small details that made me think a lot before writing any word. It would be much easier for me to say that Flame Imperishable are a Progressive Symphonic Metal band, but it would so inacurate due to everything “Glory and Ruin” delivered. So, let’s go writing piece by piece from the Progressive Symphonic Metal thing.

It would also be too obvious to say Progressive as album opener “Oblivion – The Halls of Waiting” has a strong classical influence not only by its name but also by the classical inspired acoustic guitar. As the track goes on the Symphonic Metal influences go showing off by the guitar and the vocals. Albeit this obvious initiation, after listening to all the album my dear fan will notice that this Progressive goes beyond the classic Prog Rock thing to get near to Profressive Metal. Is that all? No, not at all. The acoustic and gentle “Shrine of Resurrection” has that Renaissance feeling. In some ways what Flame Imperishable deliver here is very similar to what Edenbridge deliver to the fan. But the band is far more complex and that’s the real challenge. It would be also too easy to say that the band is Symphonic due to all the Symphonic taste the album has and the many passages with the influence. The problem is that Flame Imperishable have much more finesse in their music writing. Ok, that would be a fair explanation of what my dear fan will hear in “Glory and Ruin” but again the question is is that all? No, it isn’t as the album hasn’t finished yet and a track as “Bregalad’s Lament” starts to play with its jazzy saxophone and the classical driven acoustic guitar. The very first question is what the hell is that? Easy to judge as I don’t like saxophones in any way in Metal music. Not easy to say that the track fits to the album and continues to fix as the same saxophone goes on following track “The Herald’s Approach” now with heavy guitars. This track has so much finesse that it is impossible to mention all of them. Even I that don’t like saxophone have to bow and agree that the track is fabulous.

Not an easy album to review. No, it’s not. But a fantastic and wondrous album to enjoy. Full of surprises and layers of music and finesse and more finesse. The life of reviewer is for sure not easy.

Flame Imperishable “Glory and Ruin” will be released on August 19th via JLG Records.

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