Seven Kingdoms – Decennium (Napalm Records)

English:CD-review
  Van Muylem    17 mei 2017

Seven Kingsdoms was formed in Deland, FL in 2007. The band began to play shows, went through all the usual "underground band" ups-and-down; members came and went; numerous local shows; an independently released debut album; etc. Finally, once they had a more solidified lineup, the band signed a management/booking deal with Intromental Worldwide in 2009, which lead to a record deal with Nightmare Records. From then it all went the right way and the band worked very hard to get there (including a tour with Blind Guardian). Today we are 10 years later and they present us a new album …


First thing that stole my heart was the fantastic artwork: a very retro 70’s Science Fiction piece of art that looks very promising. Good music always comes with good artwork and gets faster picked out if you don’t know the band. Now back to the music:

Stargazer starts the way they launch a rocket into space with vocals from Sabrina Cruz that go sky-high, exploding drums and raffling guitars. The backings are sweet. Another killing track is Undying: it sounds like heavy metal candy crush! Listen to the heavenly vocals whilst the music is very melodic and into heavy metal like only the very best can provide it with this magical sound! The backings are well chosen and adds that little extra that pushes the song to a higher level (and give it a great live feel, check it out on stage). The guitar solos are also worth it!

In The Walls has even a gospel feel thanks to the backings as for the rest it’s a speeded up heavy metal track with great lead vocals! The tale of Deathface Ginny is a cool fired up track with lots of power play! Castle’s in the snow gets a great live feel with magical backings. Kingslayer tells us a cool story and is a heavy metal rager, just as The faceless hero and Neverending: sharp guitars, fast tempo, perfect vocals, cool backings … All is dragging us deeper into their story! From here on it goes in one straight and heavy ine towards the end with power tracks like Hollow and Awakened from Nothing. They don’t give us time to catch some breath! They end with a gigantic blast!

Well if you see this album as a concept album, then it’s a shot in the rose! Heavy metal fans will absolutely adore this album! However if you analyze this album track by track and put it all together you get too much of the same (but all in high quality): fired up and speeded up tracks with cool guitar solos, perfect backings and a women who can sing you out of your socks! I was hoping for a ballad or at least for one track where you could at least catch some breath, but this albums just moves on like a speeded up tornado and only stops if you forgot to select repeat all. This little weak spot is also their strength: they grab you by the balls and leave you breathless! Despite this little thought I can only be humble for so much quality and power play!

Can’t wait to see them on stage and meet them!