Falconer have become somewhat of a cult power metal band throughout their 15 years of existence. They have gained a massive following with their raw, traditional and well produced power metal style, yet still managed to stay wrapped in the underground given the band have hardly played live. Evidently this is one band whose pure focus is the recorded music.

‘Black Moon Rising’ is released 3 years on from the band’s last effort ‘Armod’, with the previous effort unveiling the band’s experimental side taking the folk influence to the extreme. With ‘Armod’ raising more than a few eyebrows, ‘Black Moon Rising’ takes an aggressive approach to revert back to the classic Falconer style conjured on the first two releases…perhaps almost too aggressive.

The album kicks off with a bang with the track ‘Locust Swarm’, throwing in everything in the Falconer repertoire to ensure that ‘Armod’ is long forgotten. The traditional Falconer elements of the galloping drums, chunky riffing, twin harmonies and speed are all present within the first 30 seconds of the album that attempts to foreshadow the brilliant album to come- unfortunately this works to the opposite effect. ‘Locust Swarm’ proves to be the high point of the album as the melting pot of everything good about Falconer, leaving the rest of the album struggling to live up to its potential.
The special element of Falconer is the contribution of the classically trained theatrical vocalist Mathias Blad, who remains brilliant and consistent throughout the album giving each song a special atmospheric touch. The guitar work is excellent with more effort placed into writing more technically profound riffs and licks, however it seems as the album progresses each song becomes more a case of ‘too many ingredients in the dish’.

‘Black Moon Rising’ is by no means a bad album; however as a band that focuses purely on recorded music it leaves a lot to be desired. The fast, aggressive and more technical nature of the music album would almost certainly bring something great to the stage, but as an album that has to compare to previous efforts such as ‘Falconer’, ‘Chapters of a Vale Forlorn’, and ‘Northwind’ it certainly falls short.