Draekon – Prelude to Tragedy
Release Date: December, 2011
Highlights: The entire album
Website: http://www.draekon.net
Draekon has managed to do what I love so much in a modern metal band. They have reached deep into the ground to pull up the roots of influences such as Queensryche, Iron Maiden, and Savatage, and cross breed them with the progressive intensity of bands like Dream Theater and Symphony X. The end result is collection of stellar metal masterpieces that will please even the most diehard of progressive metal fans while appealing to the fans of classic, epic, and melodic metal. Draekon’s debut EP Prelude to Tragedy is a great example of just about everything I love about heavy metal music: epic vocals, catchy yet melodically heavy riffs, great lyrics, and a stellar delivery.
It didn’t take one full listen to solidify myself as a total fan of this band. The opening track “The Value of All” sealed the deal right way and completely blew my mind and had me reaching for the back button to listen to it another two times before even moving on to the next song. With its complex arrangement and tempo changes, I was absolutely floored with how heavy yet melodically beautiful this song was. Lead singer Chad Barnes as a voice that harkens back to classic era Queensryche and I have to say that the tastefully layered harmony vocals just took this song to a whole new level.
The rest of this stellar EP did not disappoint and song for song it proved itself to be an unearthed heavy metal masterpiece. “Darkness Falls” is yet another melodic masterpiece that really shows how well they have managed to hybrid progressive epic metal with classic melodic metal. Barnes’ vocal delivery finds him calling upon his inner Bruce Dickinson with spot on precision yet with enough passion and soul to make the hairs on my arm stand up. I also love that while Draekon is obviously a band of superb talent and ability, they all exercise enough restraint that the music is never overly wanky like Symphony X can sometimes be. Instead, they choose to dial it back allowing the songs to not only breathe but to be easy to grasp and connect with.
“Where Silence Stills the Soul” which closes out the album is without a doubt one of the greatest album closers I have ever heard. It is an absolutely beautiful yet epic acoustic number that is somewhere between Queensryche’s Rage for Order album and Savatage’s Hall of the Mountain King. With it’s meditative and melancholy vibe, it leaves you feeling like it’s not really over. It’s almost as if it’s a break before intermission and had me eagerly wanting more and dying to find out what lies ahead. Prelude to Tragedy is a pretty damn near perfect metal masterpiece. It has epically big production, over the top vocals, harmonies that cut through the air, and well written and performed songs. What more and a heavy metal aficionado ask for?
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