Demons & Wizards
Touched by the crimson king

THE REVIEW

“Touched by the Crimson King” is the second episode from the Hansi Kursch and Jon Schaffer combo. I admit to having listened very little to their debut album, but this surely marks a significant step forward. It is a power metal album (somewhat peculiar, to be honest), which successfully blends the sounds of Blind Guardian and Iced Earth, for whom the aforementioned individuals are the singer and guitarist, respectively, creating a well-structured personal sound.
The album kicks off in grand style with “Crimson King,” a truly epic and fierce track, probably the best of the entire work. The chorus is excellent, and the internal acoustic part is very effective and inspired. From the outset, Hansi and Jon give their best, the former with a performance, as throughout the album and, let's say, as always, grounded more in emotion and aggression than in technique, and Jon with precise and powerful riffing execution, offering solid and fast foundations.
“Beneath the Waves” quickly calms the initial harsh atmospheres, bringing them to something more melancholic and dramatic. Even “Terror Train,” despite being the hardest composition of the album, maintains that restless, nostalgic something. This choice, noticeable in every song, might be due to the themes addressed in the particularly unique lyrics, which partly draw inspiration from Stephen King’s "The Dark Tower," an author quite appreciated by the good old Hansi.
Another outstanding feature of the work is certainly the constant use of dark acoustic arpeggios, which are immediately noticeable in the following track: the excellent semi-ballad “Seize the Day,” the passionate and beautiful “Love's tragedy asunder,” the passable and ultimately tedious “Gunslinger” and “Wicked Witch,” and the nice, although somewhat familiar, “Down Where I Am.”
“Dorian,” on the other hand, is an excellent fusion of power, mystery, and restlessness. There are several tempo changes, mostly well-executed. It could be one of the album's highlights if the intermediary section weren’t so long and repetitive.
Lastly, we find an unnecessary cover of Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song," the classic "use and throw away" track, meant to be listened to a couple of times and then discarded.
Unlike many power works, it's also noteworthy that there's a lack of blazing solos. As some might already know, Jon (even when composing for Iced Earth) prefers to focus more on the rhythm section than the solo part, also because he doesn't feel completely confident and skilled for solos. The few that do appear (played by Jim Morris), as just mentioned, don’t focus on speed but on calmness and emotion, and they are nonetheless more than adequate.
In general, this is an elevated work (at times extremely elevated), very enjoyable, listenable, and excellently produced. The decision to focus primarily on melancholic and touching atmospheres is a bold move, especially for a genre like power metal that emphasizes frenzy, aggression, and speed, which in the long run tends to become monotonous and static. In short… "the classic nice album that won’t go down in history"…