Okay, I can safely assume that anyone who clicked on this review has a smidge of geek in them, otherwise with a band name like ELVENKING it would be instinctively and immediately passed up. Now for those still with me and appreciate metal that’s a tad folksy and induces a little bit of blushing, “The Winter’s Wake” should do the trick just nicely.

It shouldn’t strike anyone as a big surprise that these guys are from Italy, a country that produces a lot of cheesy metal bands who sing about dragons like RHAPSODY and HERALDRY. As such, the approach of ELVENKING is far more of a traditional metal one unlike CRUACHAN or FINNTROLL. Also, as one can expect, this album isn’t exactly what you’d call “ballsy” music—about as heavy as it gets is the opening track “Trows Kind” and songs like “March of Fools”, and from there it’s just as harmless and vanilla as the rest of the genre is. Things get really folk-like with the ballads “On the Morning Dew” and “Disillusion’s Reel” but beyond that the violins are more of an enhancement if anything, sort of like how most bands utilize, say, a keyboard. This singer never sounds anywhere near as gruff or masculine as Martin Walkyier, and the music never sounds anywhere near as interesting as SKYCLAD, but hell, nobody else has been able to top those guys either. The end result of “The Winter’s Wake” sounds sort of like MAGO DE OZ would if they sung in English or perhaps ANGRA with violins in place of the QUEENSRŸCHE influence and synthesized trumpets. One important note of interest, though: the title track features none other than Schmier of DESTRUCTION. Just goes to show that even vanilla folk/power metal can hold surprises sometimes.

Now I am not about to dis the geeks who are going to role play to this album—the first time I spun this disc I was playing Magic: The Gathering with some buddies, so I’m certainly not one to talk! Therefore, to my brothers, who worry more about spell casting than social skills and personal hygiene, take comfort in knowing that “The Winter’s Wake” is perfect music for rolling 20-sided dice to. Anyone else, well, has far more important shit to spend their money on this year… just look through our damn review archives.

- Cardona

OFFICIAL SITE: www.elvenking.net

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