Those slight issues being taken care of, let's move on to what makes this album truly special to me. Those who prefer vocalists who are pitch perfect 100% of the time are probably not going to enjoy the unusual sound of the band anyway, so if either of those apply to you, you're probably better off looking elsewhere. In the latter case, however, any experienced connoisseur of USPM should be used to similar and worse, and I myself find him to have quite a bit of character and an impressive power and range which easily overshadows any minor quibbles I might otherwise have. Certainly there are plenty of people who are outspoken critics of The Wheel of Time series, and there are aspects of the music which I suppose might be turn-offs for some a number of stop-start riffs which vaguely resemble those common in metalcore (though employed in such a different context that I'd expect only casual metal listeners or dishonest ones to actually accuse them of being such), and a vocalist with a slightly wonky timbre. Now, I'm well aware that, to some extent, the band's aesthetics and stylistic choices may simply happen to overlap strongly with my own, and not necessarily with that of many others. However, with the two in tandem- well, suffice it to say that, upon first hearing this gem, my first though was "It's not even my birthday!" Certainly this was a draw to me from the start, though I dare say I would have enjoyed the music in any case, as its unusual, ambitious song structures and sprawling, epic tendencies are already very much up my alley. Of course, my enjoyment of them is certainly aided by the fact that their thematic foci are very much in lock step with my own interests any fan of JRPGs should have no problem picking up the reference in the band's name to the 1995 classic Chrono Trigger, just as any fan of Robert Jordan's high fantasy series The Wheel of Time (of which I consider myself among the foremost) will quickly notice that the last four songs on the album are about the series, specifically the second volume, The Great Hunt, which, by chance, happens to be my personal favorite. When one is accustomed to slogging through the dregs of any genre (in my case it has most often been heavy/power metal), any band with a shred of talent or originality is most welcome, and stumbling over something on the level of Lavos Beckon is a one in a thousand sort of occurrence, at most. As far as I'm concerned, having listened to their sole full-length album, 2012's Wars Fought With the Heron Marked Blade several times since discovering it about six months ago, the music these gentlemen have created is certainly a diamond in the rough. Whatever one might be inclined to think of them, Lavos Beckon are surely an oddity - the Philippines are hardly a metal hub to begin with, and when you narrow that down to a band playing progressive/USPM.well, in this case they are literally one of a kind in fact, they are, evidently, one of only two bands in the Philippines playing power metal of any sort, according to this site's advanced search feature.
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