Label: Reaper Entertainment
Genre: Power Metal
Release Date EU: July 19th, 2024
Tracklist:
The Descenders
Fight!
Far Beyond
Railroad of Dreams
Saraswati
New Horizons
The Voice from the Silver Mountain
Forgotten Nation
Nightfall
The Emerald River
1917
I have not heard and/or reviewed many albums from Slovenia in the past 30 years, but SKYEYE is definitely a band to watch out for, because their 3rd album New Horizons is quite a sensational affair. The band was founded back in 2014, and meanwhile their line up consists of Jan Leš?anec – vocals, Primož Lovšin – bass, Mare Kav?nik – guitars, Jurij Nograšek – drums and Urban Železnik – guitars 10 years later. The band’s new album New Horizons comes in a beautifully gate folded package with all the information you need to know about the recording and it’s songs, including the lyrics, beautiful artwork and a large photo of the band in their best metal pose one can imagine! There is enough to read and look at while listening to this double vinyl album, and thankfully the quality of the music is also of a very high level, so basically we have here an album to check out for sure, especially if you call yourself a fan of classic 80s traditional melodic (European) metal. 11 songs are included in total, and they are spread over 2 vinyl records.
Opener The Descenders shows right away that we are dealing here with rather excellent straight-ahead uptempo Melodic Power Metal that is focused on catchy singable choruses and high pitched vocals, not far removed from NOCTURNAL RITES, MYSTIC PROPHECY and such European Melodic Metal, although JUDAS PRIEST and HAMMERFALL are also close-calls here. Of course IRON MAIDEN, DIO and MANOWAR kinda True Metal influences are also all over the place, which is hearable during especially the following uptempo Heavy Metal Anthem Fight!, which is a superb mixture of the 3 aforementioned legendary Metal Kings! The band’s singer Jan is an amazing singer who has the exact perfect voice for this kind of classic melodic metal, while instrumental the band is also moving in a rather sensational direction. As already mentioned, there is no single weak song on this album, and despite I have not heard that many Metal albums in 2024, this new SKYEYE album is definitely a contender for best Melodic Metal album of 2024! Other highlights are Far Beyond (the song IRON MAIDEN has not created in the past few decades!), the epic Saraswati, and the fantastic catchy uptempo classic 80s IRON MAIDEN ish Forgotten Nation.
If you want to discover a new band with original self-written songs in the style of classic melodic metal a la DREAM EVIL, HAMMERFALL, IRON MAIDEN, SAXON, JUDAS PRIEST, MANOWAR, MYSTIC PROPHECY, NOCTURNAL RITES and such, then look no further than this SKYEYE and their new album New Horizons! Make sure to grab yourself a copy of the vinyl edition, which is a true Melodic Metal Masterpiece!
Written by: Gabor Kleinbloesem
Ratings: Gabor 8/10
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