Spanish power/neo-classical metal group
Dark Moor offered one of their heaviest, most tightly produced efforts to date with 2010's
Ancestral Romance. Unstoppable drum bashing and technical metal guitar riffing met with equally considered theatrical vocals and fantastical classical orchestrations on every track. Highlights to this perpetually epic album include the multi-faceted opener "Gadir" and the throwback hair metal riffs of "Oh! Wretched Me." Sometimes the hair-metal factor gets a little too high in the mix, as on the corny, cringe-worthy "Just Rock," but despite a few missteps,
Ancestral Romance remains one of
Dark Moor's stronger albums. ~ Fred Thomas