PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
Kerion are a French symphonic metal band formed in 2002 from the band Kerlian who were an instrumental Prog metal band. When singer Flora joined they decided to create a new group rather than just continue under the old name with a very different sound.
They released two demos (“Conspiracy of darkness” and “The last sunset”) and then concluded the story with their first full-blown album “Holy creatures quest” which concluded the story trilogy. The two demos were made available later as an album – “The origins”. Now it’s time for their third album – “Cloudriders part 1: Road to skycity”. In the same way that the earlier works were concept albums as they told a single story spanning the entire album (or more than one album), so too is the new album.
Once again the storyline for the album has been written by Chris Barberi and is another epic – sci-fi mixed with pirates (I wonder if he’d been watching Disney’s “Treasure Planet” which combines the same two elements in a sci-fi version of Treasure Island). The cover art is beautiful. The album itself includes short dialogue sections between some of the songs which helps with telling the story.
Musically though is what makes the album so impressive – this is some seriously good symphonic metal. You’ve got real epic sounding songs which are helped by the use of a choir at times to help give that real feeling of an epic scale. Flora’s vocals are fantastic, there’s some beautiful guitar work, and the use of violins and flutes adds an extra element to the sound.
This is an absolutely superb album for fans of symphonic metal – if you’re a fan of bands such as Therion or Rhapsody of Fire/Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody then this is an album you really should listen to.
Cloudriders Pt 1 is out now.
Rating: 9.5/10
Kerion are:
Flora – vocals
Remi – Lead Guitar
Sylvian – Rhythm guitar
Stephane – Bass
JB – Drums
Track listing:
1. Riders theme (Intro)
2. The map
3. Everlasting flight
4. Bounty hunter
5. The sky is my ocean
6. Fireblast
7. Tribal vibes
8. Never more
9. Celticia’s song
10. Ghost society
11. The fall of skycity part 1
12. The fall of skycity part 2
13. Riders theme (Outro)
