Guardians Of Time: A Beautiful Atrocity

Every now and again a band comes along that makes you wonder why you've never heard of them. Thundering into view, Norway's Guardians Of Time certainly fall into that category, with A Beautiful Atrocity, which is the band's third album being impressive enough that I'm already wondering how I've managed to go this long without even hearing a whisper of their name, never mind their first two albums. Looking a bit deeper, maybe one of the reasons that this classy power metal outfit have evaded my metal radar is that they actually split up after releasing album number two "Machines Of Mental Design" in 2004. After playing in a few other outfits, the Guardians main protagonists Bernt Fjellstad (vocals) and Paul Olsen (guitar) realised that this was the only band for them and quickly set about recruiting Bent Lindebo (guitar), Jonkis (bass) and Oivind Vagane (drums) to set their vision back into motion. Boy have they succeeded!

I can't comment on the musical style of the first two albums from this band, however A Beautiful Atrocity is a fantastic blend of power metal styles, with the band managing to blend the galloping bombast of Euro style power metal with its more technical American cousin. Add to that the grandiose theatrics of Kamelot and Queensryche and the bone crushing aggression of the latter day solo output from Bruce Dickinson and this is an album that combines brutality, and a no nonsense abrasive attack with stunning, technical musicianship and a compelling concept. The story the album covers is rather complicated, but well thought through, telling the tale of the Demigod Delacroix who resides in the Realm of Dreams where she enslaves humans in their sleep. The tale is told from both that fantasy based side, but also through the character Jeffrey Callahan who is caught somewhere between the waking world and the realm. To add to the atmosphere spoken word clips, and snippets of news broadcasts help move the story along in a manner that never interferes with the flow of the songs, nor lets the concept get too "deep". In fact A Beautiful Atrocity is an album that can be fully appreciated whether you care for the underlying story arc or not. The reason for that is the most important and impressive aspect of what Guardians Of Time have achieved with this album, which is that the songs are pretty damn fantastic! There are many influences that come to the fore as the songs roar past, with everything from Maiden to Gamma Ray and Queensryche to Avantasia, as well as Kamelot and Bruce Dickinson being brought to mind. Thankfully though in the end Guardians Of Time don't feel the need to actually stay too close to any of their influences and as mentioned before it is the ability to blend traditional Euro themes with more American tendencies that allows "A Beautiful Atrocity" to sound welcomingly familiar, while never feeling like a retread.

Fjellestad has a mighty and melodic roar that sees him being as comfortable softly crooning the more introspective moments of the album as he is battling for supremacy against the fantastic guitar work of Olsen and Lindebo. Add to that a hugely impressive rhythm section in the shape of Jenko on bass and drummer Oivind Vagane and Guardians Of Time really are a force to be reckoned with.

It's not easy to stand out in the ever crowded power metal scene, however having created an album as thoroughly convincing as A Beautiful Atrocity, there's no doubt that Guardians Of Time are amongst the best the genre has to offer.

Track Listing
1. The Beginning of the End
2. Perverse Perfection
3. God v2.0
4. Monster
5. Altered in Red
6. Mind Divided
7. Heart of Darkness
8. Sleep Eternal
9. Dreamworld Messiah
10. Tide of Time
11. Only in a Dream
12. I, Sinner
13. The Man

Added: December 26th 2011
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: Guardians Of Time on Facebook
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Language: english

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