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

Review by JD on March 2, 2011.

In this line of work, reviewers can become really confused with some of the bands we listen to. SKW has done just that, and I have not touched a beer before hand either. This was all about this band and their music. I need morphine just to get through this.

SKW is a band that is a whole lot of things and they are about as confusing as a dyslexic working in a road sign factory. SKW is like a very bad Red Hot Chili Peppers playing a mix of Guns ‘N’ Roses, a bizarre feeling U2 and some older form of metal. They jump between this third rate Funk/Ska music that most beginner guitarists could do while adding in some badly played metal.

Songs here are as confusing as anything and end up being so disjointed musically, it just ends up like a very bad wall of noise with no real direction other than to be as annoying as possible. It is like SKW were trying to be Meshuggah with Ska tendencies or something along those lines, and failing really badly. It made me want to turn it off more than once.

I hear a group of good musicians, too bad that they had to try their hand at some ‘fusion’ metal. I think they would be better penning some instrumental for the MUZAK corporation for playing in elevators and shopping centres. This is not really metal, and never ever should be considered to be.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 4
Production: 6
Originality:4
Overall: 4

Rating: 5.2 out of 10

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