All the Sinners

I discovered this band when my friends and I drove to Quebec to see Dragonforce's first show over here, and they opened. The other bands were lackluster, so I expected little from the other local band. What I got instead was a performance that rivaled any band on the planet. They can play their hearts out, and Sonia can sing her ass off. (She also looks foxy in a pirate outfit.) I was blown away, and as a bonus I got to talk to Martin for a while after the show. He was really friendly, and an excellent guitar player. If this band were born in Germany or Finland they'd be legends right now. It can't be easy to be a power metal band in Cryptopsy country in the frozen north.

This is a really unique album. I know the quick response would be "dah, no, it's power metal!" but while there are plenty of elements you've heard before, I find this band to have a very distinctive sound. That goes more or less without saying, as this band has a female vocalist in Sonia Pineault. She's not an opera deal like Tarja from Nightwish or one of those whispery singers from goth metal bands, she really brings it. She has the perfect voice for this music.

The music operates for the most part at Iron Maiden speed or slightly faster (not approaching Dragonforce tempo or anything like that). There are ballady songs on here as well, but not sappy ones that most power metal bands include, but strong ones that suit the story of the album (which is apparently about some sort of good guy nature-witch). The tracks on this album all stand out, but some like March for Freedom and Magic Fountain will get trapped in your brain forever.

The harmonized vocals are excellent, she has a clear voice with not much of a French-Canadian accent (except on the intro track). I believe the primary background vocalist was from a Quebecois Iron Maiden coverband, and you can tell an excellent singer in his own right.

Pat Vir is a talented bass player and is allowed to actually participate fully in the music unlike most power metal bands where the guy primarily serves to beef up the chords. Fredric Desroches is an excellent keyboard player and is produced well, you couldn't imagine the songs without him but he's not trying to play one-upsmanship with the guitars like some metal keyboardists tend to do. The guitarwork is fantastic, classically inspired and perfectly performed.

The production is clear and well done for an independant release. Good musicians can put out a great album on any budget. It's not tear your nuts off heavy, but it suits the music perfectly. It sounds great. I couldn't reccomend this band enough.

When a band releases a second album, the expectations are usually high. No doubt about that. For an independent band, I think the pressure is twice as great as to whether they bring out a good product and survive, or whether they flicker and die. “All the sinners” by Forgotten Tales passed the test admirably. It is a great album; better in every aspect than the first one: “The promise”. I must say that I’m impressed because as you know, a lot of bands tend to repeat themselves with every release. Forgotten Tales doesn’t! They take their music to a new level. The sound is better, the songs are more mature, tighter, and more interesting in general. Also, the vocal melodies have improved too. I think the band learned a lot from their past experience and probably, from constructive criticism they gathered from around the world. You know, there are times when reviews help!

Yes, Forgotten Tales is still a power metal band influenced by bands like Rhapsody and Gamma Ray; that we already know. But they are not a copy. If you really give it a listening chance, you will discover subtleness in musicality behind each song. I think musicians will understand more what I mean. The songs are more complex in general, and there are more progressive passages; something that you don’t hear very often in this kind of music. (ex. Gamma Ray, Edguy, etc.) This, they manage to do without getting stuck into boring technicality. It is a good balance between performance and feeling. I think each kind of power metal fan will find one song to suit his or her taste on this album. My favourite song is “Three wishes”, which contains many musical variations. It reminds me a bit of songs like “Keeper of the seven keys” by Helloween but it is more aggressive. In my opinion, the weakest song is “Fairytales”, because the debut reminds me too much of “Black diamond” by Stratovarius. But, hey, nobody’s perfect!

I like the new guitar solos on this album. You know, a lot of guitar players seem to repeat what they have done previously. Martin has new ideas. Some are interesting and melodious, some fast (not only for the sake of being fast), and some, slower and with feeling. I think in the song called “The message”, Martin gives us a good idea of what he can do. He has good technique and his picking is always very precise,. In some songs, the bassist plays with his fingers like there’s no tomorrow, man. He’s fast! The one instrument that has evolved more than any other, besides the vocal, is the drums. I don’t know what happened between “The Promise” and “All the sinners” but, the drummer is more versatile. His hihat has subtlety and he does offbeats (which I don’t hear often in power metal). The guy has improved. As for the keyboards, you can compare them with what’s on the first album, but I am not a good enough to judge whether or not the guy is better. Well, in the song “March of Freedom”, he gives us a small solo. Interesting. Once again, the band is unbelievably tight. Like clockwork. Quite amazing for an independent release.

The sound of the album is really great. I said, previously, that the recording volume of the first album was lower than average. Well, Forgotten Tales has corrected that problem. They kept the dynamic of their sound with few compressors. It is kind of new to the power metal trend, because the fans are used to hearing a sound on their albums that is dominated by the drums and guitars. They used a mix based on the sound you find on albums done by progressive bands and applied it to heavy metal music. Some people will like it and others, simply won’t. It depends if you are open-minded or not. I like it a lot, because it is the first time in power metal that we can hear every instrument. For example, with power metal, sometimes you can actually remove the bass and the song won’t change because it is the least heard of the instruments. Not the case with Forgotten Tales. I like their kind of sound mix. It is quite unique.

In conclusion, like the album “The promise”, if you are into Rhapsody, Stratovarius and European Melodic Power Metal with a very unique touch, I think you should give this band a try. Once again, they have no label so their albums are very difficult to find on the market. I don’t understand why they haven’t been signed by a major label in Europe yet. I’ve seen worse releases out there…