GLORYHAMMER — Tales from the Kingdom of Fife (review)

GLORYHAMMER — Tales from the Kingdom of Fife album cover Album · 2013 · Power Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
adg211288
Tales from the Kingdom of Fife is the debut full-length album from Scottish power metal act Gloryhammer. The band features among their number Christopher Bowes, frontman of folk-power metal pirates Alestorm, although in Gloryhammer he only takes on the role of keyboardist, with Thomas Winkler (Emerald) handling the vocals. Tales from the Kingdom of Fife is a concept album revolving around an alternate history Scotland, a land in which dragons and magic exist.

Sounds like your typical cheesy power metal effort on paper doesn’t it? In all fairness it is just that, especially lyrically, with song titles including The Unicorn Invasion of Dundee, Silent Tears of Frozen Princess and The Epic Rage of Furious Thunder. I suspect though that Gloryhammer’s full on endorsement of power metal clichés may well be at least part of the intent behind the album. The music itself however isn’t the most over the top I’ve heard from a symphonic-inclined power metal act, which is the particular niche of the genre that Gloryhammer falls into. It is definitely quite the epic sound though, as well as catchy. Most important though is that Gloryhammer have created a fun album in Tales from the Kingdom of Fife.

Nothing particularly breaks the mould here, but the album makes me smile and in all honestly some of the results that Gloryhammer have come up with instantly strike me as superior to some of the more serious power metal albums out there. The songs are all good but are quite across the board with a couple coming over as being good but filler songs (Silent Tears of Frozen Princess, Hail to Crail), and a couple having a really addictive quality that I know is going to keep me coming back to them over the rest of the album (The Unicorn Invasion of Dundee, Angus McFife). The rest are somewhere in between, with Quest for the Hammer of Glory being the best of the rest. The band has a great energy, and Thomas Winkler’s performance in particular is excellent.

Part of the reason that power metal as a genre often gets disparaged by metal fans are the very tendencies that Gloryhammer has in abundance on Tales from the Kingdom of Fife. While for Gloryhammer this is all a part of the appeal of their music it does mean that the album is a definite no go area for anyone who can’t take their metal in such a light-hearted, comical, and indeed happy manner. For those of us without a permanent frown on our faces though Tales from the Kingdom of Fife is a great power metal album, and deserves a score to recognise it as such.

83/100

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org/gloryhammer-tales-from-the-kingdom-of-fife-t2878.html))
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