Style: progressive power metal
Thoughts: I have a lot of metal in my collection. According to my database statistics its 42.8% of the record stacks as of this writing. A vast majority of that is extreme metal, and a most of the extreme metal is black in color.
Other forms of metal exist in the stacks, and most of the stuff that I have in there is classic albums that I grew up with. I am chronicling all of this for two very important reasons. Having power metal in my collection is one of the rarest of the rare genres for me to have. Having a new power metal band that I didn't grow up with is possibly the rarest condition for an album to be included in my collection... in fact I think Witherfall may be the only such band that currently resides there.
With that out of the way, what ultimately led to the conclusion that Witherfall was worthy? A couple of things: the album was on clearance and had a cool cover. That was enough for me to take note and listen to the album a few times before pulling the trigger. What ultimately matters here though is that last part... the music. What did I hear?
A Prelude to Sorrow is power metal at its core, but it also has a hefty dose of progressive metal along side it. Within this framework the dudes in Witherfall create some really nasty and chunky riffs that are essentially the antithesis of what power metal typically is. These guys bring the bottom end, yet also do not shy away from the neo-classical melodies and arpeggios that power metal is so well known for.
The other main part of this is the song writing. These guys like long songs, with the first real song being over 11 minutes long before it finally fades out. It twists and turns like trying to navigate through a labyrinth before returning to the ever elusive chorus. It's exceptionally well written and an awesome way to start the album.
The remainder of the album follows suit: heavy riffs, great vocals, lots of aggression, and even a nod to extreme metal here and there through a vocal like or blast beat. This is easily one of the best prog/power metal albums I've heard in a long time, I'm glad that I decided to give it a listen. Now I need to take this as a launching point to check out their other albums.
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