Customer Reviews

Battle of the Ivory Plains

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This band plays tight, fast, rhythmic metal with a great deal of power delivered by guitar, keyboards, and vocals. The album is a theme album set in a fantasy world where forces of good and evil have come together for the fated Battle of the Ivory Plains. (Evil wins this time, see the sequel album Holy War for victory by the good guys!)

The singer is definitely in the higher range, which is not appealing for all listeners, but if you accustomed to European metal bands, you will not be disappointed.

1. Dragondawn - This track is an introduction to the world of Dragonland (the band name but also the name of the world where their story takes place); it is an instrumental reminiscent of film scores. A very nice addition to a concept album like this.
2. Storming Across Heaven - Here's where you get your first taste of the power metal, with an intense guitar-driven intro followed by a powerful call by the singer. Then you get right into business, with the story of Dragonland sung to you with fast rhythms flying by. A great one.
3. A Last Farewell - A ballad, with a slow intro featuring piano-like keyboards and the sound of a rolling storm in the background. Guitars come in for a bit and then soften, followed by vocals, with the singer playing two parts: a man and a woman in love, and the man must leave to battle. Good.
4. Ride For Glory - Amazing metal. Cool guitar intro followed by rhythm and lyrics describing the ride of the army of light onto the battlefield. Great chorus, fast and furious guitars and keyboards, great solos.
5. The Orcish March - An ineresting opposite to Ride for Glory in that this tells the story of the other army coming to battle, and the music and feel are fittingly different.
6. The Battle Of the Ivory Plains - Fast guitars greet you as this tale, the center of our story, details the actual battle between light and dark. Intense, never lets up.
7. Graveheart - A slower song whose lyrics reveal a survivor of the battle to be a special, fated individual. Guitars begin clean, but get heavy at the chorus, and features a great solo.
8. Rondo Ala Lurca - A very fast-played instrumental, and shorter track, that sounds a bit like the first half of the album played at light speed.
9. A Secret Unveiled - Keyboards begin this song whose lyrics are sung slowly with a pulsing bass/keyboard behind, but heavy guitars and drums join the chorus/bridge. Solid track that comes at you slower than the fast and furious previous tracks, but continues to feature great talent.
10. Worlds End - The story's end is detailed in this great track. A counterpart to Storming Across Heaven, with great guitars and fast lyrics that rise in intensity. This song delivers and builds to a great end.
11. Dragondusk - This final track from the studio album is again an instrumental like Dragondawn, giving the epic scope of the story continuation with a slow, sad ending.
12. Worlds End (Demo Version) - Dragonland has been working on their album for a while, with various Demo versions out there to listen to. Also good, but definitely unrefined compared to the audio recordings. However, worth having and a good footnote to the progression of their music.

If you are curious, get this album! It won't disappoint. But even better might just be Holy War, the sequel and second album by Dragonland!

Think of all the popular heroic power metal bands and Dragonland is technically their equal. Unfortunitly they sound a lot like them too. Obviously thats not a bad thing (sounding like the best power bands) but it is a tad redundant. If you can't get enough good power metal (and it is good) I would get it and pass on some of the earlier releases of Rhapsody, Kamelot and Edguy it's better than them and it's only their first release.
The album itself is musiclly quite sound. There are plenty of classical passages, the instrumentalists exceed themselves with virtuous elements and speedy gears. Singer Jonas Heidgert revels in highest notes and manages to hold the technologic elements together with catchy melodies. As usual for the genre, Dragonland spins a dramatic story from imaginary countries. Good fights Evil, however, with a twist because Evil wins. Even so, this CD is not evil it's very good and worthy of your consideration