Tungsten - 'We Will Rise' Album Review

Tracklist:

1. We Will Rise

2. Misled

3. The Fairies Dance

4. Coming Home

5. It Ain’t Over

6. As I’m Falling

7. Sweet Vendetta

8. Animals

9. Remember

10. To The Bottom

11. Impolite

12. Wish Upon A Star

There is something absolutely freeing about reviewing a debut album from a band. Regardless of whether they are a band who are brand new, or made up of musicians you may have heard of before, the blank slate of a debut album is an absolute joy for me. And part of that is the anticipation. If you’ve never heard anything by a band before, you have no idea if they are going to be terrible, the best thing you’ve ever heard, or somewhere inbetween.

So when I put on Tungsten’s debut album, and the title track “We Will Rise” barrelled into my eardrums, I was excited.

Tungsten are a Scandanavian Power Metal band, but they seem unafraid to differ a little from the standard template that other such bands conform to. They have slow moments in songs, interesting additional instrumentation, and in all, just a slightly different feel, which will always be great at helping them stand out.

Production on this album is top notch, and the performances are exceptional. The guitar work is amazing, and I really like the vocal performance as well. It’s just a shame that this potentially astounding album is let down ever so slightly by the songs.

Let’s just clarify – I’m not saying that there are any bad songs on this album, not at all. But there are a couple of unmemorable ones (“As I’m Falling” is not a favourite of mine, neither is “To The Bottom”), which sadly will stop this album from smashing to the heights that it could have reached. On the other hand, there are some great songs on this album as well – The one-two combination of “We Will Rise” and “Misled” at the start of the album are absolutely brilliant, and "Misled" was almost my song of the album, until I reached track 7 – “Sweet Vendetta”. This is a song that absolutely shouldn’t work musically – it feels like two or three ideas smashed together, but it’s done so well that it is easily my most listened to track of the last couple of weeks.

So in short, 'We Will Rise 'is ABSOLUTELY an album you should be listening to. Tungsten have almost scored a home run with this, their first album, and I cannot wait to see what they are able to serve up in the future.