Rampart - A Tale To Cold

I’m pleased to see band which take the 80’s power metal aesthetics and incorporate it into their music, and one of my most latter encounters is the Bulgarian four piece Rampart, yet another bringer of classic heavy/power. Rampart did not really catch my unawares, and their brand of traditional power metal is fairly complex as you may expect, but let’s just that that the sound deviates marginally from the purest roots of old school power metal, seasoned with a bit of modern brickwall construction and rigorousness. With such a blatant path set for the riffs to flow, the band has clearly exposed many of its tricks and upcoming strategies, making their Ep ‘’A Tale To Cold’’ an apparent, predictable release, but somehow it’s still fun.

Rampart omitted the traditional cheesy antics of the classic power metal sound, charming the listener with a stricter force of beckoning simplistic melodies and thrashy chops, made heftier with the beefy guitar tone. ‘’A Tale To Cold’’ also likes to channel between somewhat desolate, chaotic chord dispersions and more vigorous compulsions. I liked the riffs, catchy and even epic at times, but I just felt that they were drudgy and dry in general, generally failing to exploit the required amount of energy outside to illuminate the atmosphere. After going through three semi-modern barrages of epic old school power metal, the fourth crust, a Helloween cover makes all the difference, offering a uniquely substantial amount of even more epic, flashy riffs, and you can hear the obvious changes in the music. ‘’A Tale To Cold’’ isn’t necessarily repetitive, nor does it bare anything redundant, but it’s dry riffs coming at you occasionally, and worst of all, the band doesn’t carry a massive aplomb, forcing the leashes to pull the aback.

Still, this EP wasn’t at all a bad experience – just one that didn’t leave its mark on my ear. Every band should excel at a certain element of metal, or a certain art of metal, and ‘’A Tale To Cold’’ simply gathers lots of various elements together and releases them in a violent surge, without actually being savvy in any of the elements used in the mixture. I’ll be glad to hear new material from these Bulgarians, but only if they can conjure a more dynamic, dexterous sound.

Highlights:

Metal Spell

A take To Cold

Rating: 77%