One thing I do get and understand when reviewing albums from bands in foreign countries is that learning English when it's not your first language can be very tricky especially if you plan on singing in that language. Some countries such as Sweden pull it off no problem but there are those that don't pull it off so easily. I have come across that a couple of times in albums I have reviewed for the site and I wanna know if that's the case with today's promo review. Only one way to find out I suppose.

The promo in question is "Dragon Inferno" by a Kazakhstan Metal band called HOLY DRAGONS which I will admit does sound like a cool name for both an album title and a band. Originally from the Almaty area of Kazakhstan, they formed in 1992 under the name AXCESS before changing it to their current band name in 1997. Since then they have released a lot of material and have undergone a few member changes. Their latest offering, "Dragon Inferno" comes out today (October 13^th) on Pitch Black Records.

The band's lyrical themes seem to focus around Fantasy and Dragons which does sound pretty cool when you think about it but does it translate into great music or not? I'm going to start off by reiterating on an earlier point and that is the learning another language completely different to your native language. Because this band are from Kazakhstan, naturally it must have been a challenge learning English on top of their native language of Kazakh so I will give them points for trying.

So does it translate into good music? I'm afraid not. I'm still giving them points for learning English on top of their native language but that's where the good points stop. The music itself is not bad as it is clear and you can make out the insanity of the music which is traditional Metal with bits of Speed, Power and Thrash in the mix so it is very heavy, fast and loud.

Vocal performance wise? It's not the type of thing you can easily adapt to or get to like as I think the singer tries a bit too hard at times and that I'm afraid ruins things a bit for me as most times you can't hear the words or indeed understand them even if they are being sung in English. I think they should have taken more English lessons to properly nail it down but that's just a suggestion from my personal point of view.

I can't really think of anything else to say here so I'll quickly sum it up by saying that I am impressed with what this album is but in places there are parts which do ruin it a bit for me which is mainly the vocals and I'm sure there's some other issues in there too. If I did have to pick one good track, it would probably be the instrumentals on the album as there, the band just let the music do the talking and that's what I prefer when everything else is very much hit and miss.