Russia may not be very well known for its Metal scene, hell CANNIBAL CORPSE got shows stopped over and over again and BEHEMOTH were sent to jail there, but newer to the Metal scene we have Power Metal band DISTANT SUN and their new album "Dark Matter." Let me start off by mentioning how awesome this album cover looks, crazy Dragr looking thing in space with planets and meteors behind it, instant draw.

To start things off, when I hear Power Metal I think of soaring high vocals, but this band takes on a much more ICED EARTH style which is rare to hear. Its clean vocalist Alexey Markov has a ton of Thrashy strength to his voice that complements the instrumentals very well. Second song on the album "Kill The Fremen" was the first song to really stand out to me, this song shows power to Power Metal, up until a small break which has the band playing acoustic guitar and as "unmetal" that is, it sounds awesome with the contrast between shear strength and something so soft. A few songs down we have "Matrix Hacked"; this song is a little more hectic from the last one, featuring intense drumming after a small break about half way through the song and the best guitar solo on the album thus far. This song also has more raspy vocals than the past ones allowing Alexey's voice to battle against the higher pitch guitar and show dominance, although the song does have a very quick and a little awkward sounding outro you instantly forget about this once "Shattered Empire" begins. At the beginning you can hear someone talking, telling you a story, as the instrumentals slowly build behind our narrator you can expect no less than destructive strength from the band. The last song I want to talk about is "Gifts Of Journey" which sounds like a pub song. When you think of movies like Lord Of The Rings, think of them being in a tavern getting some alcohol and singing stories, this is what you would expect it to sound like!

Power Metal is known for its fantasy and DISTANT SUN's story of a galaxy far, far away definitely take you on a journey through space and time. This is an album to pick up for any fan of ICED EARTH style of music and DIO style of lyrics offering Thrashy Power Metal and fantastic fantasy stories that could write their own movie! Dominance, destruction and heroes, all are to be expected as you listen through this album.