Dragonlord
Black Wings of Destiny

February 2006
Released: 2005, Escapi Music
Rating: 3.5/5
Reviewer: Anders Sandvall

Dragonlord is an all-star band with members from Testament, Nevermore and Sadus and this is their second album. The debut came in 2001 and is called RAPTURE. If you think that Dragonlord have anything in common with Testament besides members you’re dead wrong. Eric Peterson and members are here exploring the darker side of life and the music they play is symphonic black metal with thick layers of keyboards and in the middle of it all I get a power metal feeling when Eric sings with his regular voice instead of death metal vocals. Musical references can be drawn between Dragonlord and Dimmu Borgir and Naglfar.



Amongst the 10 tracks on BLACK WINGS OF DESTINY Peterson has included one intro and also one cover of the Thin Lizzy track “Emerald”. It feels like Eric has found something that can be very promising in the future but it’s still too early to say if this is going to be a band to count on in the future. The main material is OK but sometimes in certain parts it feels like the band has put in songs that don’t feel like their quite finished yet. The strongest songs and killer tracks are “The Curse Of Woe”, “Sins Of Allegiance”, “Until The End”, “Mark Of Damnation” and “Fallen”. “Emerald” closes the album and Eric sounds a lot like the late Phil Lynott.

Dragonlord stays true to the original and do a frighteningly great version of the song.



Dragonlord went to Sweden to record this album in Studio Fredman in Gothenburg and producer is of course the owner of the studio Fredrik Nordström himself. The great Mr. Nordström has of course done a great production. That man can’t make any mistake as a producer.



The rating drags down because of the weaker songs, and also because of the overuse of keyboards and the power metal influences. Otherwise this album feels OK if you’re into the symphonic metal scene or curious what Eric Peterson does nowadays.