Emerald Sun – Regeneration

Today we have another band from Greece - power metal band Emerald Sun. “Regeneration” is their third album and first with vocalist Theo Tsakirides. These guys are another band from Cyprus-based Pitch Black Records. I’m feeling oddly optimistic today despite the fact that it’s only Thursday, and so a little power metal is actually a great fit for my current mood.

When it comes to power metal the music is usually pretty easy to describe. Fast drums? Check. Giant chords and sweeping melodic solos? Check. Additional atmosphere added by keyboards? Check. Clean, soaring vocals and layered backing vocals? Check. Yep, these guys are power metal alright. Now I’m not making fun of power metal; I could just as easily make up a list like that for death metal or black metal. There are just certain traits that you come to expect from a style of music. One thing that stood out was a cool bonus track cover of Bonnie Tyler’s 80s hit “Holding out for a Hero.”

The production on “Regeneration” is good. No complaints about the sound quality at all. Everything sounds great.

I never got very deep into music theory when I played, but to over-simplify, as I understand it major chords sound happy and minor chords sound sad. A lot of metal music benefits from minor chords, scales, etc; but I think power metal must use a lot of major chords and scales. That would explain why it always sounds so jubilant and inspirational. “Regeneration” is no exception; it makes me feel like I should get up from this desk and go do something useful with my life. Yeah, I’ll get to that next.

I can’t tell you this is a better album than all the other power metal albums out there. The very things that define power metal also limit it in terms of doing something new and original. So while I enjoy “Regeneration” and I can tell you it is a quality album, don’t expect it to break any new ground.