Symphonic metal band Suncrown are one of the new breed of bands who’s members have never met. They got to know each other over the internet, and with the benefits of modern technology recorded their parts separately before they were all mixed together. It’s an approach that is getting more common – band members recording their parts separately, and while there are advantages in terms of convenience and cost, there are also drawbacks such as the loss of spontaneity that you get when the members are all together. In the case of Suncrown though, recording together would be a massive undertaking with 8 members split between USA, Ukraine, Turkey, Brazil and
Netherlands.
The music is great. It’s not as over the top as some symphonic metal can be – in fact it feels slightly subdued, which might be down to the production, but you do get the feeling that things could be so much better. It’s an excellent debut album, and hopefully the next album will have a bit more punch to it as this will make it much better.
Brief comments on a couple of tracks.
In ‘Make this life worth living’ you have both male and female lead vocals, and while I prefer the female vocals, the male vocals are more heavily used. I’d like to see more use of the female vocals in any future albums.
The female backing vocals in ‘Legend of the Forgotten Centuries’ sound fantastic and add a much richer feel to the song.
The final track is ‘Children of the sea’, a cover of the Dio era Black Sabbath song. They’ve done a great job of it – obviously the male vocals were never going to equal the standard of Dio’s as he is one of the all-time great singers, but despite this, Damien Crisp does a good job, and the music is extremely well done with the symphonic elements adding a whole new element to the song.
Rating: 8/10
Track listing:
1. Believe
2. Make This Life Worth Living
3. Eyes of the World
4. War Spirit
5. Destiny Call
6. Follow Your Dreams
7. Legend of the Forgotten Centuries
8. Beautiful Light
9. When Hearts Want to be Together
10. Lone Ship
11. Children of the Sea (Black Sabbath cover)