{"id":10001,"date":"2012-08-08T07:00:35","date_gmt":"2012-08-08T11:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southeastofheaven.com\/?p=10001"},"modified":"2022-01-06T19:52:42","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T00:52:42","slug":"album-review-draekon-prelude-to-tragedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/?p=10001","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Draekon – Prelude to Tragedy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Draekon \u2013 Prelude to Tragedy<\/strong>
\n Release Date:<\/strong> December, 2011
\n Highlights: The entire album<\/strong>
\n Website: http:\/\/www.draekon.net<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Draekon has managed to do what I love so much in a modern metal band. They have reached deep into the ground to pull up the roots of influences such as Queensryche, Iron Maiden, and Savatage, and cross breed them with the progressive intensity of bands like Dream Theater and Symphony X. The end result is collection of stellar metal masterpieces that will please even the most diehard of progressive metal fans while appealing to the fans of classic, epic, and melodic metal. Draekon\u2019s debut EP Prelude to Tragedy<\/em> is a great example of just about everything I love about heavy metal music: epic vocals, catchy yet melodically heavy riffs, great lyrics, and a stellar delivery.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take one full listen to solidify myself as a total fan of this band. The opening track \u201cThe Value of All\u201d sealed the deal right way and completely blew my mind and had me reaching for the back button to listen to it another two times before even moving on to the next song. With its complex arrangement and tempo changes, I was absolutely floored with how heavy yet melodically beautiful this song was. Lead singer Chad Barnes as a voice that harkens back to classic era Queensryche and I have to say that the tastefully layered harmony vocals just took this song to a whole new level.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The rest of this stellar EP did not disappoint and song for song it proved itself to be an unearthed heavy metal masterpiece. \u201cDarkness Falls\u201d is yet another melodic masterpiece that really shows how well they have managed to hybrid progressive epic metal with classic melodic metal. Barnes’ vocal delivery finds him calling upon his inner Bruce Dickinson with spot on precision yet with enough passion and soul to make the hairs on my arm stand up. I also love that while Draekon is obviously a band of superb talent and ability, they all exercise enough restraint that the music is never overly wanky like Symphony X can sometimes be. Instead, they choose to dial it back allowing the songs to not only breathe but to be easy to grasp and connect with.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere Silence Stills the Soul\u201d which closes out the album is without a doubt one of the greatest album closers I have ever heard. It is an absolutely beautiful yet epic acoustic number that is somewhere between Queensryche\u2019s Rage for Order album and Savatage\u2019s Hall of the Mountain King. With it\u2019s meditative and melancholy vibe, it leaves you feeling like it\u2019s not really over. It\u2019s almost as if it\u2019s a break before intermission and had me eagerly wanting more and dying to find out what lies ahead. Prelude to Tragedy<\/em> is a pretty damn near perfect metal masterpiece. It has epically big production, over the top vocals, harmonies that cut through the air, and well written and performed songs. What more and a heavy metal aficionado ask for?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Draekon \u2013 Prelude to Tragedy Release Date: December, 2011 Highlights: The entire album Website: http:\/\/www.draekon.net Draekon has managed to do what I love so much in a modern metal band. They have reached deep into the ground to pull up the roots of influences such as Queensryche, Iron Maiden, and Savatage, and cross breed them with the progressive intensity of bands like Dream Theater and Symphony X. The end result is collection of stellar metal masterpieces that will please even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,277],"tags":[804,808],"class_list":["post-10001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album-reviews","category-music-news","tag-draekon","tag-draekon-album-review"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10001"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19819,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10001\/revisions\/19819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southeastofheaven.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}