Skymning - Stormchoirs (1999)

Another gem from the Invasion Records roster, Skymning arrived onto the Swedish melodic death metal scene with an even more pronounced reliance on the former half of that genre. Essentially, they were writing power metal tunes and slathering the sorts of growled vocals you'd expect form their peers right on top of them. Certainly, bands like a Dark Tranquillity or In Flames could also be equated to using traditional, melodic metal aesthetics, but this group took it to a whole new level on their debut. You could imagine this entire record with a different vocalist and it might sound like a large number of Euro power metal acts, and I'd also say that in that capacity, it might not wind up with more of an impact that Stormchoirs did. Having the nastier vocals does the music a service, since it wouldn't be considered expert level in that more accessible genre.

It's a rush, a pretty good album for those who were diehards for melodic death metal at the time, but I do have a few surface complaints. The cover artwork and digital logo look pretty bad in retrospect, and I find the production to this one very washed out, and not in a particularly memorable way that just places it in an older studio era. Also, while the riff patterns were quite exciting for their day, nowadays they feel rather predictable since we've heard them all so many times since. There wasn't a novelty to the songwriting here as, say, a Soilwork or Darkane had, and again I think that's because the actual songwriting was being confined more to carrying these glorious power metal anthems forward, hell there are even some harmonies here (as in "The Question") which harken back to Iron Maiden and direct NWOHBM influence. But when the time was right, and this melodic death style was enormous here in the States due to the popularity of At the Gates or In Flames, I think Skymning would have banked a lot more if they only had better exposure. Right time, right place, wrong band?!

I like the music, but a lot of the components do feel dated, from the mix on some of the drum kit to the overall lack of power in the instruments. Not the compositions, mind you, because they blaze forward with abandon, but the heavier, faster passages sound a bit murkier than when they tear out some gleaming harmony. They have some softer parts where the bass becomes prominent, again reminding me of Steve Harris and Iron Maiden, but they don't exactly set up the ensuing elevations into harder riffing very well. It's apparent that Skyming also grew tired of this style, and potentially also thought of it as being more trendy than interesting, and so their later albums showed a lot of progression and growth, but there's no question that Stormchoirs had a potential which would have been realized with greater exposure and top notch production budget, and I think they were initially one of the more hype Invasion bands because their style just hit the mark at that exact point in time.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]