Feanor
We Are Heavy Metal

November 2016
Released: 2016, Massacre Records
Rating: 4.0/5
Reviewer: JP

It was a pretty strong month for the South American true Metal scene. I reviewed albums by Armored Dawn (Brazil), Energema (Columbia) and now the new album by Feanor from Argentina. Feanor has been around quite a few years, and after a six year gap between albums they have returned with their third album called, WE ARE HEAVY METAL. What a great title… straight and to the point!



Feanor is named after a character in Tolkien’s 1977 book, The Silmarillion. Feanor is a gem-smith and son of the High King, Noldor. This might give you a clue as to some of the lyrical inspiration of the band and you would be correct if you guessed much of this a thematic album based on Tolkien legend. Songs like ‘Earendil The Sailor’ and ‘Dagor Nuin Giliath’ (Battle Under The Stars) are drawn directly from Tolkein’s world. High fantasy and true Metal combine to create quite the adventurous and epic sounding album. The band first couple of albums were sung in their native tongue and in an effort perhaps to break into the international market this album is sung in English, with vocals courtesy of Sven of Germany’s Wizard! They also must have had a bit of a budget because there are guest appearances by Tony Martin and two (past and present) members of Manowar, Ross The Boss and David Shankle! Feanor seems to be pulling out all the stops especially with the additional of Frank Gilchrist (Riot, Virgin Steele) on drums! Even the cover art is one of the most Metal things I've ever seen, four warrior kings on four jewelled thrones in front of a legions of metal warriors throwing the horns!



WE ARE HEAVY METAL launches four straight-up songs of pure, traditional fast Power Metal! Glorious and majestic to the maximum! Then there is a brief interlude called ‘Water Gardens’ which is an ambient instrumental piece with sound effects, piano, and some orchestral flourishes. The band blends epic and atmospheric quite nicely with three songs in the seven minute range and plenty of parts that add multiple dimensions, for example the spoken word narrative over the acoustic guitar near the end of the song, ‘White And Blue. Conversely other tracks like ‘Crying Games’ and ‘The Discipline of Steel’ are far more straight ahead Metal songs, with the former being quite catchy and almost out of place on the album. There are lots of good choruses, big back-up gang vocals and driving tempos giving this record lots of force behind it. However they are not afraid to abruptly change as in the middle of the song. For example ‘The Visitor’ has a huge Manowar vibe, with a crushing sound first three minutes, then a big breakdown with acoustic guitar, epic (yet subdued) vocals and then it picks up the pace with some great double-kick work again for the back third of the song. It makes for a good listening experience. More epic narration is found on the second last cut, 'The Scribe' (with again more sound-effects) which leads into the last song on the record the crashing cut with it's equally epic title, 'The Epic Of Gilgamesh Pt. 1 (The Quest For Glory)!



I think Feanor could have really made a bit more of an impact on the global Metal scene if they had been more productive. As they celebrate their 20th anniversary they have only put out the three records. However, now that they are on Massacre Records this could be their last chance to make a name for themselves, as long as they don’t take another six years! Until then, WE ARE HEAVY METAL is a very commendable effort in the battle for global musical domination!