Chamber Mage By Light Of Emerald Gods CD Review
Power Metal isn’t a genre you’ll see me writing about often, it’s just never been my cup of tea. However, there are those moments when something comes across my desk, and I dig it. Colorado’s Chamber Mage takes that spotlight today with their debut full length “By Light of Emerald Gods”.
While Chamber Mage isn’t your typical Power Metal band, they’re in the game and they’re onto something in a Progressive Metal sort of way. The difference between C.M. and their genre peers is the band is making music that isn’t boring as hell – the bulk of Power Metal is pretentious as hell to me. The other difference is the band is still trying to navigate and find their way through the song writing process – there are a few moments on this album where you think “this song should’ve been worked on a little bit more and structured a bit better.” “Bishops Vengeance” and “Beyond the Lighthouse” notably. The lyrics, vocals and talent are there, these few songs just needed a little more time to cook. The band would’ve benefitted mightily from a great producer pushing them harder in the studio and busting their balls until everything was tight. There are moments when the timing is off and as much, I HATE playing to a click myself, you can tell the band didn’t use a click in some or all these tracks. If they did, whoever set it up didn’t know what the hell was going on.
It’s not all bad though, I enjoyed this album overall – the idea and the talent are there, and I can smell and hear what the band is cooking and where they’re coming from. I bet these guys tear all kinds of ass in a live setting! In a few years I could see these guys on some big Prog-Metal stages along with acts like Queensryche and Crimson Glory. All this band needs is a producer and they’ll be ready to do some serious damage. This genre is wide open, and it needs that next big act.
Stand out tracks – “The Emerald Tower Revealed”, “Blades on The Rampart” and “The Silver City Fell”.