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Gaia Epicus > Satrap > Reviews
Gaia Epicus - Satrap

Decent, but not very Progressive. - 83%

hells_unicorn, January 7th, 2007

Gaia Epicus has been at it for quite a while, that much is certain. With demos going all the way back to the early 1990s, it is more than obvious that this band has spent the lion’s share of its existence swimming against a tide of hostility towards the heavy metal genre. I am still seeking out music from their earlier years so I can not comment on their older material, and as such I am left to treat this album as the first actual musical offering of a band that hit the scene a bit late in the game. 2003 saw the arrival of a host of new bands that all derived their style from the 2nd tier of power metal, and as such Gaia Epicus should be treated as 3rd tier, although their origin as a band pre-dates many of the others amongst them.

If nothing else, this album exposes a tiny flaw in our system of categorizing metal bands. It is labeled as a Progressive Power Metal album, but the amount of actual progression on here is quite limited, as many of the influences are taken from more straight-forward acts such as Gamma Ray, Angra, and Helloween. Stratovarius and Sonata Arctica have their progressive elements, as does this band, but the amounts involved are meager compared to acts officially known as Progressive, so they settle for the more generic Power Metal label and define their sound by their individual take on it. In the case of Gaia Epicus, most of the progressive elements are contained with in the music on a small collection of songs, while the lyrics are a mishmash of fantasy and sci-fi stories and a few Manowar-like moments in the case of “Heavy Metal Heart”.

The most musically progressive elements on here are found on “Star Wars” and “Innovation”, the latter of which sounds a bit like a hybrid between a Gamma Ray song and a Dream Theatre/Symphony X song, the former being the longest song with the most changes and a few well placed musical quotes from the movie it depicts. Other tracks such as “Freedom Calls” and “Watch the Sky”, both of which are also quite long, contain some contrasting sections that flirt with being progressive, but mostly stick to the melodic power metal fold. The keyboard usage on here is quite reminiscent of Jens Johansson’s work with Stratovarius, although the more textural uses in the background do lean towards a Freedom Call approach.

Among the more catchy and anthem oriented songs, we have a rather solid collection of tracks that have a more reasonable time length for the average listener. Much like Dragonforce, Gaia Epicus made its way into its current notoriety via MP3.com, which sadly self-destructed soon afterwards. Featured songs included “Cyber Future”, “Inside the Storm” and “Die for Your King”, all of which are tailored for fans of the German brand of power metal, most notably Freedom Call and Gamma Ray. “Fire and Ice”, which was also featured on the site and is still available at the band’s website in a music video format, is the closest thing to a ballad on here. Like the most well-known singles by acts such as Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, this song has a very simple 3 chord structure, but also does well to maximize the development of this very straight-forward idea. The atmospheric quality of the music during the verses of this song is a highlight of this release.

Ironically, the best songs on here are the first two, which unfortunately affects the rest of the album as the desire to go back and listen to them repeatedly steals attention from what comes later. “Heaven’s Gate” is the most guitar driven of the tracks on here, containing some inspired riffs and some well-placed keyboard fill-ins. “Keepers of Time” is the opener of this album, and kicks off with a piano intro that reminds me a lot of the way MegaDeth’s “Killing is my business” starts, but what follows is pure triumphant power metal that is both lyrically inspiring and musically triumphant. It combines all the best elements of Gamma Ray’s “Somewhere Out in Space” album, which was probably the chief influence on its overall concept.

In conclusion, this is a solid release from a band that has obviously worked hard to get where it is. Their vocalist has a somewhat limited range, but from what I hear on their more recent work he has made some substantial improvements. I can recommend this primarily to fans of Gamma Ray’s brand of Power Metal, but it obviously is not quite the most innovative work out there, so fans of Progressive Metal should probably steer clear of it as its songs tend to be long-winded without the sense of musical eclecticism that dominates albums by Pagan’s Mind and Evergrey.

Norway's answer to Gamma Ray! - 96%

MettleAngel, March 11th, 2006

I discovered Gaia Epicus quite by accident. I had just seen a review where they were compared to Gamma Ray and Freedom Call. As I perused this critique, their name formed an indelible stigmata in my brain with their appellative imploring a combination of both Latin and Geek words. The choice of "Satrap" as the CD title allso became a nmenonic device; since, I had just seen "Kingdom of Heaven". All the keys were present compelling to me to follow the sign and investigate this unknown band. Upon visiting their website and viewing the artwork for "Satrap" which instantly reminded me of Gamma Ray, I decided to take a chance and order the CD.

I am so grateful that I seized the day and made this truly worthwhile investment. This is one of the best Power Metal releases to come out this millenium! Granted, given the argosy of bands in the genre who steal heavily from Helloween and Gamma Ray, I was not really expecting anything new or ground-breaking from these Norwegians; but I still cast my runes and trusted in the hand of fate. Gaia Epicus transcend so many of the poseurs out there and really impressed me with this killer debut.

As one reads through the song list, he can easily discover their heart-felt metal influences. With song titles like: "Keepers of Time", "Heaven's Gate", & "Freedom Calls", they clearly pay tribute to the icons of the genre like Gamma Ray, Freedom Call, Heaven's Gate, Iron Savior Guardians of Time, Angra and of course Helloween. In fact, the last track "Watch the Sky" is just a vicious rework of the thrash classic "Ride the Sky". "Heavy Metal Heart" serves as the bands' anthem with a real catchy chorus which reminds me of Hammerfall and the debut by Nostradameus.

Lyrically Gaia Epicus focuses on common Power Metal themes with an overall positive outlook. Once again they reflect the style and form commonly associated with their favorite metal bands, books and movies An example of this is in their choice of the song "Star Wars" which cleary pays homage to "Episodes IV-VI", replete with John' Williams easily recognizable melodies and the "Imperial March".

Musically this band is straight up Power Metal. Yet, still I hear so many thrash influences which bring to mind the classic German Noise bands of the late '80's, especially early Rage, Tankard, Deathrow, and Vendetta. The guitar work is just fast and furious shredding. Given that the debut is mostly session members like the bass player from T.N.T. playing along with the founding guitarist, I feel that the music is really high quality metal. The lead vocalist doesn't have that much range, thereby lacking the vocal histrionics of some of his favorite singers; but, the music compensates for this minor infraction, sending the listener spiralling inside the storm as he ascends on wings of freedom .

Some other reviewer have commented about some of the song's being too long. The average running length is 5-7 minutes for most tracks; although, a few are well over that. Once again, I never notice the music becoming boring or repititious. There are so many ripping leads and fast drumming, that I neither let the weak vocals or expanded song's running length interfere with my listening enjoyment. Others have criticized the overuse of keyboards in the mix. I feel that the keyboards are used in perfect harmony to the speedy fretwork, and never approach the progressive or symphonic stylings. They remind me more of the keyboards found in classic bands from the '70 like Rush, Deep Purple, Kansas, or Rainbow, moreso than artists like Labyrinth, Rhapsody, Skylark, or their Italian ilk.

Overall, Gaia Epicus have demonstrated their sincere innovation by releasing a high quality album which can easliy compare to the more recent efforts of those bands which obviously influenced them to keep the fire and ice burning in their veins and their metal hearts pounding as they watch the sky and prepare for the cyber future.