Released: July 19, 2024 via Reaper Entertainment
Production: ?
Length: 57:02
Genre: Heavy/Power/Maiden Metal
“Buckwheat Žganci, Maiden Style”
I’d bumped into Skyeye here and there before, spun a track or two, liked what I heard, and then forgot about them until the next time I came across them. Top-quality heavy metal, sure, but at least in my ear canals it never left any deep grooves.
I decided that was going to change with the new album New Horizons, out this summer.
Like Iron Maiden playing power metal. That’s the easiest way to write up and describe Skyeye. But it wouldn’t be quite right. Because the thunderous singer Jan (also the frontman of Iron Median) has shaken off a bit of his Dickinson-style vocal vocabulary, even though his natural tone sits pretty close to the legendary Trooper himself. And the band doesn’t exactly play power metal either, but a mix of some seventeen metal (sub)genres. On the album you can hear early thrash (mostly in the drummer’s thrash polka, which he reaches for regularly), speed, classic heavy, Euro and US power, a smidge of prog, classic Judas Priest, loooooads of Iron Maiden, a pinch of groove sneaking in here and there, and I could go on. So originality is not something we can accuse the band or the album of.
But we can give them a hefty dose of authenticity, metalness and songwriting know-how. The songs are mostly mid-tempo to fast, here and there we get a little bounce from the double bass drums, and there’s no shortage of melody or metal message. The lyrics are decent (apart from a slightly cringe tribute to Dio in The Voice from the Silver Mountain), and I really have to praise Jan’s pronunciation of the English lyrics: no trace of the typical Slavic accent that tends to trip up Slovenian singers. Overall, Jan is the star of the album; in conviction, message and commitment he reminds me slightly of Eric Adams (Manowar) in his prime. He sticks to the mid-range and doesn’t climb into the typical power metal heights, except for the “We are on our way, to (B)rave new Babylooooooooooon” in the title track. Impressive!
And so the band slaloms through the whole album, which boasts a fantastic classic metal production, with not a trace of the sugary, polished sound compression we’ve known for the last 20-odd years. The drums pound, the guitars slice and the bass growls just like they should. The solos are tasty and melodic, never too long, and the rhythmic backbone is as varied as it can be in this style of music.
If I miss anything on this album, it’s a real metal hit. A track or two that forces you to come back to the album as a whole, or makes you say in the car, damn, I’ve got to replay this one right now! The three video singles (New Horizons, Gamma Ray-esque Nightfall and Railroad of Dreams) come closest to that, and they’re well chosen to introduce the album, but they’re not exactly Hearts on Fire or I Want Out, if you know what I mean.
At the start I mentioned the connection and similarity to Iron Maiden, and the impression is that the band tries its hardest not to cross the thin line into too-obvious worship and imitation, which they pull off brilliantly. Like I said, Maiden peek out from around every corner, but only as a hint or a steely blow here and there. Until the last track, 1917, where all the brakes give way. A historical epic about the Isonzo Front in the slaughterhouse of World War I, it kicks off with typically Harris-style rhythm and melody (Dance of Death and No More Lies come to mind) and carries on in the style of every Maiden epic on similar themes. The fact is that the track is excellent, scratch that, superb, but Eddie’s ghost is really a bit too present. Let me also mention the beautiful, deeply emotional lyrical shift from “I wash my hands in Soča river” in the first part to “I wash my sins in Soča river” in the closing section. The recital “Soči” in Slovenian deepens the tragedy of the song and the events it describes even more.
The final verdict: this is a good heavy album that is dangerously raising the bar for the Slovenian metal scene. The guys are serious, professional and have all the ingredients for a top-tier international career. The fact that the band has been together for 10 years, since the very beginning, with (almost) the same lineup, undoubtedly confirms it.
Sweet picks: Nightfall, New Horizons, The Descenders, 1917, Forgotten Nation
Rating: 8/10 (half a point off for the Maiden-ness)
Author: Igorac
Tracklist:
1. The Descenders 04:37
2. Fight! 04:21
3. Far Beyond 04:46
4. Railroad of Dreams 03:57
5. Saraswati 08:01
6. New Horizons 05:42
7. The Voice from the Silver Mountain 05:05
8. Forgotten Nation 04:44
9. Nightfall 04:49
10. The Emerald River 01:18
11. 1917 09:42
Lineup:
Jan Leščanec – Vocals
Primož Lovšin – Bass
Jurij Nograšek – Drums
Mare Kavčnik – Guitars
Urban Železnik – Guitars
Cover art: Aleksandar Živanov
