2005. Unfortunately, due an abusive relationship (the girl just wanted to make fun of me), I was deeply depressed. It's a situation I never desire to anyone, men or women. But on those sad and dark days (in a way that I only can remind of rainy days, not the sunny ones), I got and album, and some songs on it gave me some happiness and strength to carry on, and finally overcome those feelings of anguish, sadness and depression. The album was "Quest for Glory", the first album from Italian band DRAKKAR (that I still have until now). And the readers can't imagine how I am happy to see that they are still active, and to write a review for "Chaos Lord", their latest album.

Leaving my personal story aside, the band is a Heavy/Power Metal adept, working on a way that can be labeled as 'Italian Power Metal' (a term that the band helped to coin back in the 90's, because it's one of the pioneers of the scene along RHAPSODY OF FIRE, LABYRINTH, and others). But pay attention to hear the rich set of arrangements that they're using, the fine contrasts, the good technical arrangements that the songs bear, the charming melodies, but the nasty aggressive touches in some parts and intense energy. It's really surprising! Mattia Stancioiu worked with the band at Elnor Studio once more on the recordings. And the sonority of the album is really very good, creating the right contrasts between melodies with aggressive guitars, and a clean and defined aesthetics. The final result is really very good, indeed.

The band still works in a great way, making of "Chaos Lord" a good surprise that can bring tears to the eyes of Metal fans. But the charming melodic appeal of "Lord of a Dying Race" (very good catchy choruses and melodic ambience created by the guitars, and what good riffs and solos), the brutal and heavy grasp of "Horns Up!" (a great song, with a massive heavy energy, and a thunderous work from bass guitar and drums), the fine contrasts from keyboards and guitars heard on the hooking appeal of "Chaos Lord" (where the vocals shows its interpretative side, with very good aggressive tunes), the thunderous weight with dense melodies heard on "And He Will Rise Again" and "Firebird", and the slow paced tempos of "True to the End" (charming keyboards and backing vocals once more) are the best ones for a first ride on their musical work. But the entire album is so good and addictive that it's hard to resist.

It's really good to see that DRAKKAR is still fighting the good fight after all these years, and "Chaos Lord" is really an excellent album. But the final words of this review are personal: thank you for the helping hand in the past.