To an extent, every band in the style exhibits an aesthetic that cuts against the notion of simply being all impact the way thrash metal tends to manifest itself, but in spite of their generally rapid paced, speed metal character that has about as much to do with late 80s Helloween as the softer side of the equation, they've tended to cloak their rapidity in a haze of shimmering sound that puts even further on the atmospheric side of things than heavily keyboard-oriented bands like Sonata Arctica and Stratovarius. Perhaps the one thing keeping this band anchored in the real world is vocalist Eijin Kawazoe, who has maintained his upper-mid range croon with occasional fits into higher territory, almost like an icon 80s metal singer that's just a hair closer to a Don Dokken than a Rob Halford, though still exhibiting many of the traits of the latter. Could they even sniff the glorious atmospheres that had been showcased? Don't want to enact jarring changes in the atmosphere of the album, now do we? Honestly, if Balflare somehow roped a second-tier European vocalist into performing these songs, ballad or no ballad, the result would be significantly more enjoyable. I feared the worst: The title track is another stand out, being the longest and most musically impressive track on the album.
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Downpour isn't entirely terrible, and for a few moments grants the fantastical escape it promises, but its too wrapped up in its dreamy, cheesy haze to really prove effective.
Balflare is something of an enigma in the power metal scene, relying about equally on atmosphere and impact rather than upon a heavy dose of the latter with just a hint of the former.
Guitar lead-work is essentially nonexistent save for a few pre-solo downour if there are no vocals going on at the moment, it falls on the keyboardist to drive along the melody, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
A slightly faster yet still generally subdued and tuneful story is told in "From The Edge Of The Donwpour, which has one of the more infectious chorus-lines found on this album and has some of the more charming underpinnings of several mid-tempo offerings on Sonata Arctica's Silence.
During the solo section b. In keeping with this, winter based imagery has tended to work best for this band, which is why the shift towards a different seasonal aesthetic in their latest album Downpour came as a bit of a shocker, given that the implications of a warm weather monsoon replacing the dusk and frost of their previous offerings would tend to indicate a shift in production practice.
Balflare - Downpour - Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives
Everything you would expect is present, and for the most part, it is just as good as previous efforts. At the very beginning of the song e. Once he hits a higher pitch, the delivery is stronger, but pretty similar to a Timo Kotipelto with a few hints of Michael Kiske; just nothing special or unique.
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Balflare - Downpour
After 53 minutes of nearly nonstop power, you will be exhausted, but you will have a hard time not hitting "play" one more time, if only to hear those choruses once again flow majestically through your speakers. First, there's the overt, romantic use of melodies, which is even more pervasive than past efforts like Tempest or Thousands of Winters of Flames.
That is really the best aspect of this album; nothing gets my dick harder than a power metal rocker zooming through space at warp-speed, and Balflare provides a plethora of such songs.
F is the correct answer, preferably all in the same song Vocalist Eijin Kawazoe sounds much as he did on "Sleeping Hollow". Write your own review.
After the release of "Sleeping Hollow", Balflare kind of dropped off the earth. CharloApril 11th, But even on these generally less crazy numbers, the band can't resist the urge to cook for at least part of the time and throw in the usual mishmash of lead wizardry that would make Malmsteen proud. This is Eijin Kawazoe's third studio performance with Balflare, and not his best. The bass lines are predictable and rarely deviate from the familiar chord patterns, and the rhythm guitar, while chunky and harsh enough that its presence isn't entirely lost, serves as little more than a backbone to the hovering precipitation of the keys.
Naturally, for this to function as a proper album there does have to be some degree of divergence away from speed and bluster, though proportionally speaking, this album definitely tilts heavily in favor of speed. All told, while I thought all the prior Balflare records were decent, exciting and loaded with potential, Downpour sets the bar a little lower.
With their fourth full-length effort Downpour, they tend to exaggerate these traits to the point that the album feels too processed and sugary to take seriously. The rest of the portion, you ask?
At its core, the music is very much neo-classical European styled power metal in the vein of other Japanese acts like Galneryus or Concerto Moon. If not slow, then fast!
Balflare has always espoused a number of Japanese power metal stereotypes, but not necessarily to their disadvantage. What a stupid question. It isn't so much that they've gone to the point of rivaling Dragonforce so much that the constancy of their speed elements are a bit atypical since the rise of the more AOR influenced strain the hit big in the mid s.
Immediately after the final repetition of the chorus c. We'll let you know when we need a solo. Balflare seem to know what they want to sing about, and I feel like the messages would be a lot better if they actually were fluent in the language, or just sung in Japanese. However, "Downpour" ramps up the keyboard atmospherics past 11, past 12, all the way to All the same, they don't really qualify as an overt throwback in that their sound is a bit more hazy and abstract when compared to most of the prime movers in the earlier days of the power metal revival, even and especially Sonata Arctica, which this band otherwise resembles the most.
All of the above Hint: While the verse is happening f.
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