The Battle Sanctuary

Has it really been ten years since Vengeance in Black? Shit. Dragonheart are mostly known as the band that forced Dragonforce to change their name, as well as producing some crap albums and one ripping killer last time out. But then the band vanished for a decade, and I didn't think we'd hear from them again.

On their last disc, Dragonheart forged a new identity by cranking up the guitars and eschewing Power Metal bombast for crunch. They also switched from clean vocals to a Running Wild/Grave Digger gargle of muscular aggression. This time they don't veer much from that formula, but I don't find the songs here as well written, and the whole package is not as energetic as it could be.

They have a heavy sound, and are not afraid to let the guitars be heavy for the sake of it, but their riffs are not really A-list, and they are back to employing clean singing much more often, and it's not very good. When they speed up and heavy up and sound more like Lonewolf they rip, but too much of this album is too slow and not memorable enough, without any really good choruses to hook the songs. They will crank up the song with a good riff, and then let the rest of it dissolve into a welter of repetition and unexciting vocals. Sad to say, but this is a comeback you can miss.