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Her Chariot Awaits: Her Chariot Awaits
Her Chariot Awaits 2020 Debut Album Art

Her Chariot Awaits: Her Chariot Awaits

Heavy Metal Rock
4.5/5.0

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Frontiers Music
Words: Craig Hartranft
Added: 22.05.2020 | Released: 22.05.2020

Her Chariot Awaits marks the return of long time Sirenia vocalist Ailyn back to the metal scene after something of a two year absence. Thanks to the folks at Frontiers Music, the talented singer was paired Adrenaline Mob guitarist and songwriter Mike Orlando. The duo are joined by Bumblefoot drummer Jeff Thal and bass player Brian Gearty for their debut album.

Her Chariot Awaits - Click For Larger Image

Her Chariot Awaits

If you have some recollection of Orlando's guitar work, his guitar style can traverse heavy and neo-classical metal, melodic hard rock, and even more assertive modern metal. Ailyn is, essentially, a classically trained vocalist, spending many years in a symphonic power metal band. So what kind of music do we have from Her Chariot Awaits. Well, you can almost completely drop the symphonic metal.

Mostly, Her Chariot Awaits delivers assertive, nearly modern, heavy metal rock. Across the album, the riffs are aggressive and bombastic, the rhythm section both blistering and thundering with galloping groove and, more often then not, the tempo is brisk and pummeling. All things, of course, lead to Orlando shredding a guitar solo until his fingers bleed. Somehow, or thanks to some exceptional production and mixing, Ailyn rises above the metal fury to deliver more traditional metal vocals. Yet her role in an arrangement also includes bringing up the song melody and harmony, giving each song some AOR-like accessibility. Otherwise, the songs within Her Chariot Awaits would be simply redundant, turbo-charged, and ear-bursting heavy metal, and hardly novel at that.

The drama of heavy metal rock fury begins quite aggressively at the start with Misery, with its blazing riffs and pounding drums. Similar in context are Dead, Line Of Fire, and Take Me Higher, all blistering heavy riff rockers. (I'm soon going to run out of adjectives, only to repeat myself.) Alternatively, you can find some dialed down metal anthems with Constant Craving and Just Remember, both of which demonstrate Ailyn's superb vocal strength and range. Within Just Remember, when you hit the guitar solo, Ailyn's choral intonations give the anthem a near orchestral texture. Otherwise, her vocal performance is simply stunning, running chills down your spine. But, this is followed by the closing number Forgive Me Dear, another riff roaring and fast paced rocker with a furious and speedy Orlando solo. And we're back to where we started.

All considered, if you like your heavy metal rock quite guitar-driven, perhaps modern metal assertive, yet tempered by exceptional female vocals with strong song melody and harmony, you will enjoy Her Chariot Awaits' debut album. Recommended.



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The Bottom Line

If you like your heavy metal rock quite guitar-driven, perhaps modern metal assertive, yet tempered by exceptional female vocals with strong song melody and harmony, you will enjoy Her Chariot Awaits and their debut album. Recommended.

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