A man of nobility
Graced by the gods themselves
Born to live a life of virtue
Hindered not by nobility or wealth.
Always valued his people
His loyalty absolute
The son of a general
Been trained to fight since birth
Not with magic, but with skill of shield and sword he (so) proudly fights
To this man, magic is but blasphemy
His kingdom plagued with mystic beasts time and time again
A truly noble act and he made his name slaying them
A renown warrior
An honored hero of his land
Ascending through the ranks*
Now a captain who serves for the glory of his king
Assigned with an important quest
To rid a mysterious cult
With a few skilled men at his side
They set out on their journey.
In Heilia Forest they dwell
Engaging in the unknown
At the behest of the king they were sent
to eliminate this potential threat
Shadows
Darkness
An unknown force throws his men in the sky.
Their limbs snap as they descend and die.
They grab their blades.
Controlled they take their own lives.
The captain gets knocked to the ground
Men lay dead all around
Half conscious, vision unclear
A dark figure approaches.
“You are cursed for an eternity”
“Bestowed upon you is the curse of immortality”
“You are granted powers that the world has never seen”
“Monumental power at the cost of your own sanity”
Symphonic stuff in metal doesn’t make its way into my collection aside from a couple of early Cradle albums. The orch here though just ads to how huge this band sounds. It makes elements in the songs more immersive. There are plenty of breaks from orchestration where its in deathcore/slamming brutality mode. While not ignorant, the songs never play with time or get mathy making it accessible and memorable. Came out 2015? Impressed. Mitch Mitcherson