DISTANT PAST – Rise of the Fallen

The Swiss quintet named Distant Past delivers progressive and melodic heavy metal that brings to mind such legendary acts as Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, DIO, and Black Sabbath’s "Heaven and Hell" record, to name but a few.

"Rise of the Fallen" is a concept album where the main theme is the eternal struggle and dichotomy between light and darkness, or good and evil, if you will. The vocalists, Thomas L. Winkler and Jvo Julmy, each embody a character, namely Lucifer and God’s son. Thematically speaking, this is hardly innovative or original, but there you go. It is, however, quite cool that each vocalist is assigned a role of sorts and that you can tell them apart like that. As I mentioned before, the music is rooted in pure heavy metal ala Priest and Maiden, which is to say catchy and epic stuff containing lots of memorable riffs and grandiose melodies. The dual-guitars are certainly very Maiden-ish while the atmosphere evokes a sense of fantasy and myth, which, I take it, is the very objective of "Rise of the Fallen". My main problem with the album is that it is uneven in terms of quality. Some are just a tad too mediocre and go nowhere while others are more emotionally charged and captivating. A bit of a mixed bag, really. The musicianship is really good, but those songs that totally take off and sweep you off your feet are missing.

If melodic heavy metal and/or power metal is your thing then perhaps "Rise of the Fallen" will appeal to you? For me, while I do enjoy tunes such as "Die As One" and "Ark of the Saviour", the album falls short of being interesting from start to finish.

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