Kerion – CloudRiders Part 1: Road To Skycity

Kerion is a French symphonic power metal band that was originally formed as an instrumental prog metal band in 1997 under the name Kirlian. A female singer named Flora joined the lineup and the band’s sound changed direction. They released two concept demos based on the fantasy story ‘Staraxis’ written by Chris Barberi, ‘Conspiracy of Darkness’ and ‘The Last Sunset’ and in 2008 ‘Holy Creatures Quest’, their first full length album which was the third and final part of Barberi’s novel. Their second album ‘The Origins’ is kind of a compilation of songs from their first two demos. After two years they released their third full length album called ‘CloudRiders Part 1: Road To Skycity’. The production of the album was made by ‘Will Lievin’ and cover art by ‘Gonzalo Ordóñez’. Japanese edition has one bonus track called ‘A New Day’.

‘CloudRiders Part 1: Road To Skycity’ is a concept album with a fantasy story about a flying city or something like that. The band’s sound is close to European power metal while adding lots of symphonic and folk elements and as you listen to the album you can immediately find many similarities with bands like Symphony X, Nightwish and Rhapsody Of Fire. The music is fine but i can’t say the same thing about Flora Spinelli’s voice, that doesen’t fit in the band at least for my taste. She yet shows some skills in songs more proper to her voice like ‘The Sky Is My Ocean’ or ‘Celticia’s Song’. Raphael Dantas (Caravellus), Adrian Eyraud (Silent Fall), Phillippe Giordana (Fairyland, Magic Kingdom) and Rimiez Choir also help on the vocal parts.

It has some good tracks such as ‘Fireblast’ that features ‘Rachel Aspe’ as a guest on the growl vocals, and a video was also shot for this song. Sylvain Cohen and Rémi Carrairou did a good job on the guitar parts laying some great riffs, melodies and solos throughout the album. Another interesting song is ‘The Fall Of Skycity’, that is separated in two parts. The first one is an opening intro for the second part and main song, an 8 minute opus. The bass lines played by Stéphane Papasergio make a great rhythm section along with the drum parts. In general, CloudRiders follows patterns that have been used for many years by many bands so don’t expect something extraordinary.

I can’t say I was blown away by this release so if you are looking for an album that will amaze you, then this is not for you. But nevertheless, i think that there are many fans of this genre out there that will find this effort interesting enough.