Dark Illusion - Where the Eagles Fly (2.5/5)

01. My Heart Cries Out For You 04:44 02. Dark Journey 04:52 03. Land Of Street Survivor 04:17 04. Pay the Price 03:27 05. Destiny’s Call 04:54 06. Evil Masquerade 05:04 07. Running Out Of Time 04:35 08. Spellbound 04:37 09. Only The Strong Will Survive 03:29 10. Epic 04:38

‘Where the Eagles Fly’ and indeed the band responsible, Dark Illusion, inspire a strange conflict within me. I’m almost perfectly evenly divided between two opposing forces, and I really can’t decide which side of the fence to fall on. To that end, I’m going to do something a bit fruity and effectively write two reviews of this album. Each side will make their case, and I’ll leave it down to you, the reader, the civilian jury, to decide who wins. To start with, here’s the case from the prosecution, led by the part of me that’s an angry misanthropic shit of a man.

I don’t want this to turn into a philosophical debate about the nature of creativity and originality, but let’s face it, your classic melodic power metal isn’t a genre steeped in fresh ideas and innovation. Dark Illusion are a perfect example of this. I mean, to start with the first thing you saw up there, all of the songs are just named after the most-repeated line in the song. The album itself is named after a line from the chorus of the first song. They didn’t even have enough inspiration to come up with a couple of extra words. What makes it even worse is that all of said lines are pure cheesy filth as well.

And then we get to the music itself…well, there’s really no need for a description here. All I have to say is “bog-standard melodic power metal”, and you’ll never be surprised in the slightest by anything Dark Illusion produce. They make absolutely no effort to stray outside the boundaries of pure stereotype. ‘Predictable’ isn’t even a strong enough word, I feel like I should make a better one up. That would be a betrayal to the Dark Illusion style though - nothing remotely creative should ever be attributed to them. They’re the incestuous bastard child of every power metal band you’ve ever listened to, contributing the square root of bugger all to the gene pool.

There’s absolutely nothing on ‘Where the Eagles Fly’ that you can’t get on any album by HammerFall, or Helloween, or Blind Guardian. Maybe, if you already had all of the albums by those bands (and indeed their legion of established sound-a-likes), knew them off by heart and back to front and were craving additional material…well, maybe then Dark Illusion would be the chaps for you. Otherwise, I don’t suppose there’s any real reason for them to exist. They’re just joining the legion of bands trying to be HammerFall, who can’t be HammerFall because HammerFall are already HammerFall. In case I didn’t make that clear…there’s already a HammerFall. Dark Illusion are a purpose-built candidate for a job that’s already been filled. In any case, go listen to ‘Crimson Thunder’ and forget about these copycat pretenders.

OK, and now making the case for the Defence: the part of me which really loves power metal, and has done ever since I first popped a (largely) metaphorical boner to a duelling keyboard/guitar solo about a decade ago.

*sigh*. Oh, Angry Phil, when will you learn? This isn’t a rip-off of that HammerFall/ Helloween/ whatever style, it’s a tribute. You take a band made up of power metal fans, influenced by all the great power metal, and what do you expect them to produce? It’s going to be something very similar to great power metal, anyway. I mean, my first band was made up of guys who listened almost entirely to Sonata Arctica and Iced Earth, and guess what kind of music we played? ’Where the Eagles Fly’ is just simple, straight-up power metal, and it’s impeccably executed. Everything slots exactly into place, from the catchy riffs and hooks to the seamless melodies and solos. In terms of classic power metal, you’d struggle to improve any single element of this album - Dark Illusion have created a record that sits perfectly at the heart of its genre.

Who cares if it’s cheesy? I dare you to listen to any song from this album and not be singing along to it in your head half an hour later. The melodies are beautifully crafted and stunningly executed, not to mention well polished in production, and the overall impression is of an album that works, that has met every goal it set out to achieve. The fact that you can compare it so closely to some of the legends of power metal is a compliment - how can it be a bad thing to be likened to the bands at the forefront of your genre? A lot of bands would kill to achieve a sound that draws such flattering comparisons.

The war of originality is not one which needs to be waged on every front, anyway. Let the prog bands push the boundaries, only terminally weird people listen exclusively to music that’s challenging and experimental. From time to time, pretty much everyone wants what’s safe and predictable, something they can tap their foot and howl along to. Dark Illusion provide perfect foot-tapping singalong material for any fan of power metal, and they’re doing absolutely nothing wrong in supplying that. Who cares if it’s easy, repetitive, predictable, unoriginal, whatever - none of that makes it intrinsically bad. Dark Illusion never claim to be anything they’re not, and are good at what they do - if you can’t accept that, maybe you shouldn’t have bought a power metal album in the first place. The defence rests.

I apologise, incidentally, that this hasn’t exactly been your traditional album review. The thing is, with an album like this, you’re either going to love it or loathe it - I seem to be able to do both in near equal measure. If you’re a fan of melodic power metal, I’d recommend you get it and make your own mind up, as it’s certainly not going to disappoint you in its content. However, if you don’t like power metal, this is the kind of album that’s going to remind you of why - and probably reinforce that feeling significantly. I think right now I might be leaning in favour of the defence (it‘s hard to side with Angry Phil, he can be such a dick), but I’ll throw myself on the mercy of the court and leave the jury to decide on the verdict.

Genre : Power Metal

Article by Phil Sim