Holly thunderfuck! Just to rephrase NBA's favorite quote heavy metal, I love this music! Being a loyal fan of US metal (metalcore is NOT US metal) and neoclassical metal (the way it was defined by the early works of Yngwie J. Malmsteen with RISING FORCE) I got a huge hard on while listening this piece of work. VAINGLORYis so massive that nearly blew my speakers!
VAINGLORY has already released one more album back in 2003 titled 2050. I haven't heard it so please don't ask for comparisons. Line up changes occurred and Kate Fench now occupies the vocal spot. Now this gal also sang in the last (and very good) CHASTAIN album (In An Outrage 2005). Let me tell you this: Kate has more balls than many male opponents. Damn true, this lady has a soaring voice that feels like a dozen hammers doing a nasty damage on your head. Definition of US metal: bombastic, massive, rhythmical, furious metal with insane guitar parts and solo. Yeap, I manage to pin-point the sucker. Corbin King delivers an album so pumped up that gives you the impression things will start exploding every minute now. Packed with fine solos and a lot of variety: the opener Walking Dead is rather modern, The Only Way I Know is a mid-tempo dynamite while on Midnight Hellfire delivers a more catchy side of their music.
The production is insanely aggressive. I have heard death metal albums with less massive sound (yeah, they all came from Sweden). This is indeed a quite clever move from the band: the genre they follow has suffered a lot in the hands of producers with archeological point of view in matters of production, one of the few acts following the same approach is BRAINSTORM.
Bottom line is that this is an album that will make all you US metal maniacs very happy. I don't know how easy is to track this baby down (since I have never heard their label before) but it's worthy of your time.