Review by Adam M on October 23, 2015.

Era resonates with power metal glory. The vocals are sweet and syrupy and complement the music perfectly. This leads to a musical journey that is potent and melodic. The power metal genre often relies on cheesiness and this element is largely absent from the material here. Instead we’re left with a great deal of songs that focus more on atmosphere rather than simply melody.

This leads to a balanced overall offering of atmosphere and power metal theatrics. There are just as many subtle moody moments as there are straight ahead metal ones. The sound the band has developed is certainly a pleasant one here. They have made things into the point that it is easy to sing along with each track. This makes for a feel good approach that is very welcome on the part of the listener. This can be seen from enormous tracks like Walking Dead. This track as well as several others have a serious amount of bravado that carries the band forward. This is an uplifting recording without a shadow of a doubt. It’s all of these disparate parts that come together and make this a power metal album above that of the competition. Could there be improvement? Sure, the band could work more on the straight power-metal tracks and make them more powerful. Still, I prefer the direction of trying to combine multiple musical styles here as it works very well for Elvenking. There is enough power metal to keep fans of the genre occupied. Era certainly capitalizes upon the lighter moments to bring it to a higher level, however.

Fans of traditional metal should find just as much to like as power metal fans here. It’s a well-rounded release that embarks upon many journeys that are satisfying to the listener.

Rating: 8 out of 10