Dangerdog Music Reviews :: © 1999 - 2025 Craig S Hartranft :: All Rights Reserved
No part of this this website, including design and music reviews,
may be reproduced in any form or by any means without
the prior written permission of the publisher.
CELEBRATING 18 YEARS!
- New Music Reviews
- |
- Archives
- |
- News
- |
- Submissions
- |
- About
- |
- |
New Music Reviews, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Progressive Rock, Progressive Metal, AOR, Alternative Rock, Alternative Metal
Recent Reviews
February 2025
- Craig Brooks: Desolation Freeway
- Mantric Momentum: Alienized
- Pattern-Seeking Animals: Friend Of All Creatures
- Crazy Lixx: Thrill Of The Bite
- Ginger Evil: The Way It Burns
- Dream Theater: Parasomnia
- Tyran: Tyran's Oath
- Saber: Lost In Flames
January 2025
- Wildness: Avenger
- The Ferrymen: Iron Will
- Labyrinth: In The Vanishing Echoes Of Goodbye
- 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
Human Fortress: Raided Land
Human Fortress: Raided Land
Melodic/Heavy/Power Metal
4.0/5.0
Facebook
AFM Records
by Craig Hartranft, 11.23.2013
About face. Reverse course. After bailing briefly after their last album, the much discussed modern metal sounding Eternal Empire, Human Fortress has regrouped and apparently has returned to the roots of melodic power metal. They do this with a new bass player, Andre Hort, new keyboard player, Dirk Liehm, and new vocalist, Gus Monsanto (Revolution Renaissance, Adagio, et al).
Human Fortress:: on a wind swept day.
Although much of the down tuning has been dismissed and Monsanto definitely singing clean, this album is quite heavy and raging at times, but in the classic metal sense. Raided Land, Child of War, Wasted Years, and Dark Knight find Human Fortress offering some blistering heavy power metal with Monsanto singing with intensity.
With Shelter and Gladiator of Rome (Part 2), the band calms down a bit, with the latter song feeling more like epic melodic power metal, rather than pummeling metal slamage. Actually, following the brief Prelude, the rest of Raided Land follows this course. Some songs are definitely heavier like Under Siege and Guard The Blind, but most will remind of early Human Fortress, and that's a good thing. In a sense, then, Raided Land is a tale of two discs with the front half still dipping into the heavier modern sound, the second half delivering more classic melodic power metal. Either way, if, as a fan, you weren't happy with their previous direction, you should like this return to form by Human Fortress.
HUMAN FORTRESS - The Chosen One (2013)
Tweet
Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.
In Short
With Raided Land, it's a return to an earlier form for Human Fortress with more melodic, sometimes heavier, power metal.
Find A Review
Alphabetical Index
New & Notable
By now it's old news. Everybody in the prog universe knows: Dream Theater got the band back together. Drummer and founding member Mike Portnoy returned to his Dream Theater family to celebrate their 40th ... [ Read More ]