What started and died as a project by two friends more than twenty years ago and turned up with an unreleased album, came back to life these last couple of years under a different name with an a debut that was actually released. CITADEL BESIEGED, once DARKHAVEN, is the brainchild of Tim Hall and Adrian Jeffreys. Their debut, "The Winter Of Evermore", is a promise that this will not be their final word or chord. Probably based on legends and ancient tales or a pretty good imagination, they produced Epic Heavy Metal with a crust of Doom.

The first thing that I noticed about this album was its production. Well I really have no idea if it was self produced or not but it has its shortcomings in the mixing, especially where the lead guitar layers are involved that sometimes are way louder than the rhythm section or the drums, which are so thin, that sometimes are shadowed by the guitars. Same goes with the lead vocals that soar behind. On the other hand, the guitars' sound is classic in nature and I was really impressed by the acoustic guitar that enhanced the storytelling nature of the songs.

Music wise, I liked what the guys did here in general and I think that it is a good prospect. There seem to be a strong influence of Dio era of BLACK SABBATH along with traditional US Metal. The lyrics bearing tales of religion, conflicts and struggles were well written. The vocals of Jeffreys were pretty nice with kinds of chants that reminded me of Marcolin of CANDLEMASS. What excited me most were the riffages. Though most of the way it was merely the same stuff over and over, it is hard not to enjoy the simplicity of straightforwardness, which seemed to me that it wasn't even intended due to the Epic proportions of the album.

"The Winter Of Evermore" can be considered as a first step, even though it came out rather late in the duo's career. In general it wasn't bad, I like Epic songs but only several of moments and a few songs around here caught my ears and truly enhanced the drama like "Fear Of The Mountain People", "Freedom Call", "The Cleansing - In The Wake Of The Storm" and "Beyond The Citadel Walls". This is a band that it's worthy to check out what they are up to from time to time. Though not superb I sense that these guys will know how to perfect their efforts for a great Epic Metal outcome with no nonsense or trends on the side.