Formed in 2007 by vocalist Brittney Hayes (aka Brittney Slayes), drummer Scott Buchanan, and former guitarist Brayden Dyczkowski, Canadian Power Metal act Unleash The Archers have been steadily gaining more attention for themselves with each release, and this upward trend looks set to continue with their fourth album Apex (Napalm). Although having undergone numerous shifts in personnel over the last decade, the almost constant changing looks to be finally slowing down, with only new bassist Nikko Whitworth being brought in this time to replace former four-stringer Kyle Sheppard. And as a result, the band sounds a much more cohesive, confident unit this time.

Fast and thrashy opener ‘Awakening’ sounds like an explosion of Hammerfall and Helloween (Hammerween?) while ‘Shadow Guide’ could easily have been written by fellow Canadians 3 Inches Of Blood. A highly noticeable theme throughout the album how each song seems to have been written for MAXIMUM DRAMATIC IMPACT. Whether it’s through Hayes’s soaring, stunning yet sorrowful vocals, a powerful, galloping drum beat, or the fiery riffs, sweeping solos, and snarling backing vocals of guitarists Grant Truesdell or Andrew Kingsley, the band’s love of melodrama is illustrated perfectly on songs like ‘The Matriarch’, The Coward’s Way’, ‘False Walls’, and ‘Cleanse The Bloodlines’, but most especially on the particularly bombastic ‘Ten Thousand Against One’.

There are a couple of slight misfires with the fairly forgettable ‘Earth and Ashes’ and stupidly gallopy ‘Call Me Immortal’ but even those aren’t bad songs by any stretch, just not as memorable as the others. The album closes with epic title track ‘Apex’ and in many ways it’s the perfect way to end things. An eight-minute monster which features all the best elements of the band as well as sounding like Iron Maiden if they had written ‘Kiss From a Rose’ by Seal [! – Ed]. The musicianship is exemplary throughout, and the production is clear and strong, allowing each instrument to be heard clearly but always making sure Hayes is able to take her rightful place at centre stage.

Traditional, escapist Power Metal and its more modern offshoots unite together as one by one, each track takes you on a journey to a land of fire, snow, swords, eagles, wolves, witches, mighty armies, rolling hills, dense forests, and majestic castles, and does so, of course, in the most dramatic way possible. So get ready to raise your fists, grasp those invisible oranges, and hold your sword aloft while screaming your most fearsome war cry for the glory of Metal. The Canadians are coming. Oh yes.

8.5/10

GARY ALCOCK