• New Music Reviews
• |
• Archives
• |
• News
• |
• Submissions
• |
• About
• |
• 
• |
• 

January 2025

• Bonfire: Higher Ground
• The Big Deal: Electrified
• Landfall: Wide Open Sky

December 2024

• After Lapse: Pathways
• Illusion Force: Halfana
• Powell-Payne: Voilá

November 2024

• Sunstorm: Restless Fight
• Storace: Crossfire
• Voodoo Circle: Hail To The King
• Lionville: Supernatural
• Starchaser: Into The Great Unkown
• Empires Of Eden: Guardians Of Time
• Lonerider: Down In The Dust
• Seventh Crystal: Entity
• Neal Morse & The Resonance: No Hill For A Climber
• Beardfish: Songs For Beating Hearts
• Impellitteri: War Machine
• Brothers Of Metal: Fimbulvinter

October 2024

• Casandra's Crossing: Garden Of Earthly Delights
• DGM: Endless
• Daytona: Garder la Flamme
• Fate: Reconnect 'N Ignite
• Frost*: Life In The Wires
• Aries Descendant: From The Ashes Of Deceit
• Fans Of The Dark: Video
• Radioactive: Reset
• House Of Lords: Full Tilt Overdrive
• Cleanbreak: We Are The Fire

September 2024

• Sinner's Blood: Dark Horizons
• Serious Black: Rise Of Akhenaton
• Eclipse: Megalomanium II
• SteelCity: Reverence
• Hydra: ReHydrated
• Heartwind: III
• Gabrielle De Val and the Dragonlords: Tiger
• Find Me: Nightbound
• The Nail: The Nail
• Timeless Fairytale: A Story To Tell
• Stryper: When We Were Kings
• Phil Mogg: Moggs Motel
• Pure Reason Revolution: Coming Up To Consciousness
• Jordan Rudess: Permission To Fly

[ More Music Reviews ]

Empires of Eden: Reborn in Fire

Melodic/Heavy/Power Metal

4.5/5.0

7Hard Music
www.myspace.com/empiresofeden
www.empiresofeden.com
Review: Craig Hartranft,  07.12.2010

Australian guitarist Stu Marshall (Dungeon, PainDivision) never does anything half way. His debut Empires of Eden project was a tour-de-force of very strong melodic/power metal. Marshall returns with his sophomore title, Reborn in Fire, another mammoth slab of colossal melodic heavy metal featuring his searing fret fireworks. Marshall's fingerprints are all over this album: it's his pure passion and enthusiasm for his metal-craft that makes Reborn in Fire thrilling.

Building upon the brilliance of the first platter, and his international cred, Marshall enlists several of the best metal vocalists of our day. Accompanying return collaborators Louie Gorgievski, Mike Zoias, and Chris Ninni are metal heavyweights Mike Vescara (Obsession, Loudness, Yngwie Malmsteen), Sean Peck (Cage), Zak Stevens (Savatage, Circle II Circle), Steve Grimmett (Grim Reaper, Onslaught, Lionsheart, GrimmStine), and Carlos Zema (Outworld). These stars alone could steal the show as they too have given the same passion in their performances as Mr. Marshall. A short list of favorites: Zak Stevens on Prognatus Ut Obscurum, Scott Peck on Total Devastation (the title describes his performance), and Zoias and Ninni on the stirring title track Reborn in Fire.

Yet, EOE is still a Stu Marshall project. His arrangements are epic, definitive examples of the genre, and his fret work soars from fundamental neo-classical to otherworldly inventiveness. He inspires on all tracks, but listen for his best on Of Light and Shadows, Death Machine, and Beyond Daybreak. While melodic power metal is an abused and often repetitious genre these days, Marshall and his Empires of Eden project resurrects and revitalizes it in a single crushing, head banging, 50 minutes. Strongly recommended.

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

While drawing on some great metal vocalists, guitarist's Stu Marshall's fingerprints are all over this album. But it's his pure passion and enthusiasm for his metal-craft that makes Reborn in Fire thrilling.

Alphabetical Index

The Powell Payne project, created in 2022 is the collaboration of Mark "Penfold Powell (ex-drummer of Psycho Kiss) and Adam Payne (former vocalist of Airrace). With guitarist Adam Davies and keyboard player ... [ Read More ]