Excalion – High Time

Releasedate: 29-01-2010; Label: Limb Music
By: Elvira Visser

Excalion is a Finnish band founded back in December 2000 in a little town Konnevesi in central Finland. A few guys knew each other but had never played together. After trying this out they decided that they would have a band, they had now the problem of finding a vocalist. Not much later they found Jarm Pääkkönen. In the beginning of Excalion the band played apart from their own songs covers of other bands like Stratovarius and Nightwish (without vocals). A bit later in time Kimmo Hänninen joined the band as a guitarist. This resulted in the first real demo in the year 2001. It took a while before they got signed with a small label in 2003, with whom they released their debut CD “Primal Exhale” in 2005. In 2009 they signed with Limb Music and started recording a new CD at Studio Watercastle in Finland. In January 2010 they released their new album “High Time”.

With the release of “High Time” Excalion proves that they are not just around, they take their melodic power metal serious and have tried to deliver something that sounds different then their previous albums. The sound of Excallion can be compared with band such like Stratovarius, Kotipelto and Leverage. They have the melodic guitars with a little more punch to them and the pounding drums to create a full sound. The keyboards are not the most important but merely add that little extra. The lyrics however are not the most unique ones out there, they are kind of obvious. What they did to make the album not boring is that they have given each track their own signature. One a bit more poppy and the other a bit more rough this all while mixing progressive and power metal with the melodicness of their guitars. Best tracks of the album would be “Enter a Life”, the faster “Bring the Storm” and “Quicksilver”.

Tracklist: 01 Enter A Life 02 From Somewhere To Anywhere 03 Sun Stones 04 The Flags In Line 05 Bring On The Storm 06 The Shroud 07 Firewood 08 Lifetime 09 Quicksilver 10 A Walk On A Broken Road 11 Foreversong

Links:
Excalion MySpace
Excalion Official