Artist: Saracen
Label: Escape Music
Release: 2006
Rating: 4.5/5
“Vox In Excelso” is a concept album built on the mysteries and controversy of the historical role of the Crusader Knights Templar (medieval knight-monks who were handed a license by the first pope, the guy who made up the Templar order in the first place, to slaughter “infidels” from the East), who became one of the most powerful military and financial organizations in Europe. But the record’s concept explores horizons that go well beyond the battlefields of the Crusades. The Templars were also guardians of “ancient wisdom.” As their order grew, it absorbed, through contact with the Saracens and other peoples of the East, traditions hiding unsuspected energy and power, if you knew how to ”handle” them properly. That’s how they developed their own “wisdom” (philosophy, ideology). Wielding the magic of this wisdom, which was open only to them, turned out to be one of the key influences on the development and consolidation of nations and on the religiosity of the Western world. To this very day, this great wisdom remains revered and strictly guarded. The order grew so powerful that the pope even feared the Templars might threaten him and throw him off the throne. The climax of the record is therefore the burning of the last grand master of the Templar order, Jaques De Molay, who was caught through deceit, and Molay’s words of curse, which he uttered while burning at the stake! The hand of fate struck the French king and the pope with that curse exactly as Jaques foretold! Brrr… we’ve got a tense thriller ahead of us!
Saracen have been at it for 25 years. “Vox In Excelso” is only their third album. At this point just two original members are left in the band: singer Steve Bettney and guitarist Rob Bendelow. Perfect! That’s exactly what matters most for the style Saracen cultivate! Through these two, all the band’s trademark sound signatures are preserved. Bendelow as the man of ideas – the guitar riffing is unmistakably his – and the traditional vocals, unmistakably commanding, high and melodically pompous, which Bettney owns! Saracen stay true to their heritage!
This is yet another album that’s an incredible jigsaw of classic N.W.O.B.H.M. elements (even the production blows you straight back to the eighties) and AOR melodic rock (multi-vocal harmonies glowing melodically in expertly crafted choruses and individual passages, plus that characteristic synth sound that shoots you back to the eighties once more). A unique blend of both genres on the horizon!
Saracen stay strictly true to themselves and so remain strictly recognizable on today’s map of heavy metal and melodic hard rock. The album is a living relic of the eighties’ legacy. Packed with pomp, symphonic touches and anthems that a true nostalgic headbanger can only dream of. This is a record with a concept that doesn’t demand any special digging to get under its skin. Saracen simply approach it with perfect feel, and the concept comes across terrifyingly real. The dynamics wind all the way through atmospheric “hills and valleys” of tense moods that flow into each other in highly unpredictable ways. The sound is grandiose! With crystal-clear separation between the instruments in the production! It boasts a thick, voluminous bass-and-drums rhythm line that is “irresistibly” attractive, passionate riffs and finely crafted, softly wailing three-part harmonies that give you goosebumps! On one side there’s the epic vocal, on the other the piano arrangements. Both build up the basic mood and the basic riffing, and the story comes to life so convincingly! Bettney shows tremendous authority in his vocals, raging, fearless, yet at times he can turn totally fragile and delicate! In short, the man carries a feel that follows Bendelow’s basic musical ideas to the letter. One moment the album carries a gloomy, dark atmosphere, the next the sun breaks through, and the colorful shifting of moods is outstanding!
Now the material. Right off the bat: there’s a female narrator slotted in between the songs, guiding the listener through the story. Maybe a clumsy thing for those of you who like to get straight to the point. But if you’ve got the time, this album deserves headphones like few others, and you should just let yourself go and let it carry you off to the world of the crusaders. After the opener (Lament), which recalls the motif-based “cross over” of the songs Castles in The Sand (“Red Sky”, 2003) and Where Was Their God?, a track further into “Vox In Excelso”, the album gets its run-up with a reworked Meet Me At Midnight, originally released on Saracen’s debut “Heroes, Saints, And Fools” (1981). The lyrics are slightly adapted, and in the verses Jesus Christ, on the day of his crucifixion, calls on Mary Magdalene to wait for him at midnight. The song has grown even bigger in its arrangements and is completely filled out spectrally with them. The atmosphere in it is dangerously catchy. The punchy, explosive riff is simply ideal for opening a concept like this. The Order also bursts with punch and wildness! The finest leap back to the traditional eighties N.W.O.B.H.M. sound, though, comes with The Power & The Glory, led by yet another elemental, rock-solid riff from the brilliant Bendelow. The striking, wicked, mid-tempo anthem Chain Reaction, which freezes the blood in your veins, shocks once more with the tradition of the new wave of British metal and is one of the album’s heavy-hitting peaks. Among the “sped-up” moments are the ballad-like atmospheric tracks (the title track, Exile) as well as Where Was Their God? or Mary and Priory Of Zion, which will satisfy especially fans of epics with a greater dose of complexity, variety in the passages and a running time well over 9 minutes.
With the new record, Saracen have made an album that’s hard to compare. Next to its equally unique predecessor “Red Sky” (2003), which served the band as a catapult for coming back from the dead, it is much more sophisticated, with less hacking and slashing, and an album made with even more feel! An album sworn to the traditional eighties sound that sounds fascinatingly fresh, uniquely its own, and delivers a pompous, crystal-clear production and passionate, convincingly crafted riffs of the kind only the greats can pull off, starting with classic Judas Priest or classic Iron Maiden, which means nothing less than a bullseye. The album bursts with highly vibrant moods and spectral sonic filling, when it comes to using the available “instrumentarium.” In short, an album tailor-made for the band’s die-hard fans. Fans first and foremost! But there’s simply no way any nostalgic lover of N.W.O.B.H.M. sounds, brilliantly crossed with the elemental feel for melody and sophistication that AOR rock elements bring, will walk past this album! A masterpiece and a “megastically” mature creation from the hands of a mature band! Quality that blissfully stands out in the whole sea of “hard n’ heavy fluff” on the market today, and recognizably so by a mile! Serve it hot!
Lineup
Steve Bettney – vocals
Rob Bendelow – guitar
Paul Bradder – keyboards
Richard Bendelow – bass guitar
Mark Cross – drums
Production
Martin Kronlund
Tracklist
1. Lament
2. Meet Me At Midnight
3. Exile
4. Order
5. Militum Christi
6. Mary
7. Vive Dieu Saint Amour
8. Power And The Glory
9. Chain Reaction
10. Vox In Excelso
11. Where Was Their God
12. Priory Of Zion
Album length: 77.44
