Limb Music/Sound Pollution
Volvo´s dealing in metal all the time, but now they also deal in heavy metal! Back in 2004 production line workers Stefan Jacobsen and Freddy Olofsson met at work, discovering their mutual enjoyment of HELLOWEEN. Two years later their first demo “Land of Dreams” appeared, and they got hold of keyboard player Stefan Malmenlid. Along with him came his brother Jimmy who assumed bass duties. The trio of Stefan, Stefan and Jimmy are the core of the band today. Musicians have come and done, and due to that the discography is made up of demos, and this latecomer of a debut. Melodic power metal is the name of the game and the band is compared to bands like STRATOVARIUS, THUNDERSTONE and BLIND GUARDIAN in the info sheet. In difference of the Germans they are entitled to speaking about the north… The keyboards-guitar combination and the band´s love of heavy metal are some strong points it seems. Well, on with the show.
LAST KINGDOM opens and closes in fine fashion. The title track, “Warrior Kings”, “Abandoned” and “Lost” are all great metal in anthemic and sometimes epic northern power metal style. In between them is the truly epic “The World Is Dying” with its message of doom and decay. Five more in the vein of those songs and a really high mark would have been a fact. On the downside I note that Stefan´s voice is a bit chanting and that the high-pitches are deadringers for KAI HANSEN´s limitations. In the eighties that would have been high fashion, but it is not in comparison with the mentioned similar bands. “Daylight Retreats” is not the most flowing of songs and neither is the rather messy “Silver Moon” or the perhaps too slow “Fate”. Perhaps the voice is at its best in a song like “Abandoned”, which is far from the straining range of German-inspired power metal? But all in all the trio has achieved a solid albeit belated debut that shows that they rock, they just need to work on a few flaws, find a stable line-up and have another go at fame and fortune.
Track List
Chronicles of the North
Warrior Kings
Daylight Retreats
Silver Moon
The World Is Dying
End of Life
Fate
Abandoned
Lost
www.limb-music.de www.myspace.com/lastkingdomband
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