ALBUM REVIEW: Seven Spires - A Fortress Called Home

Although they sit under the symphonic metal banner, Boston’s Seven Spires throw just about every style into the mix on their fourth studio album, A Fortress Called Home. With a combination of power metal, symphonic passages, orchestral elements which are weaved around bursts of extreme metal, this is an album that will no doubt excite existing fans as well as pulling in many new one. 

It’s an emotional rollercoaster which begins with the dramatic intro followed by the majestic eight-minutes of Songs Upon Wine – Stained Tongues. If this dramatic and explosive track doesn’t grab you early on, then you may wish to walk on by. It’s got some phenomenal musicianship embedded in it, with the soaring vocal range of singer Adrienne Cowan tussling with the impressive guitar work of Jack Kosto. It’s certainly going to be an album that lights up the darkness, with sheer bone crushing passages that echo the likes of Wintersun alongside more balanced and calming symphonic sections. 

An emotional ride from the start, it’s difficult to really pigeonhole this album. Seven Spires craft an intricate soundscape that constantly evolves, providing the listener with the uplifting, more traditional symphonic style on songs like Almosttown, with its sweeping movements that switch with gentler yet still robust parts to singalong sections. It's evidently a work that the band have thrown their heart and soul into. Cowan comments that “I visited the void twice while writing this album. I don’t know which begat the other. It’s ugly. I love it and I hate it, and I think it’s our best work yet.” 

The interplay between the searing alto delivery and the death growls will possibly shock those unfamiliar with the band, and musically, there is so much going on that at times there is a little bit of a sonic overload. Just when you think that the band have slotted into one style, they explode into frenetic bursts of death metal, overlaid with orchestral elements. Check out the fire of Architects of Creation, a frenzied cacophony that sees the band meld aggression with cinematic scores. It’s quite the composition and one that has taken me a couple of plays to appreciate. 

There are even some folk metal styles hidden in the album, such as the shorter and delicate Emerald Necklace, a song that allows Cowan to take centre stage, with pipes and other orchestration providing the backdrop. It's not a short album, clocking in at over an hour, but by the time you reach the finale, the theatrical The Old Hurt of Being Left Behind, which sees Cowan adding more growling vocals to the mix, there’s a real sense of amazement at the sheer effort that has been added to this album. Not one for everyone, the complexity and layered approach may put some off. But if you like your music to come with an assault to the aural cavities, then A Fortress Called Home is likely to be for you.

A Fortress Called Home is released on 21st June Via Frontiers Music

Review by Hutch