Seven Kingdoms hail from Daytona Beach in Florida and, led by guitar prodigy Camden Cruz, they certainly have plenty of ambition and fortunately plenty of talent as well. They’ve appeared on the same bill with artists such as The Absence, The Agonist, Sonata Arctica and also performed on the Florida leg of the 2006 Vans Warped Tour. 

Lyrically the band is inspired by the literary works of George R.R. Martin and with “musical influences spanning the vastness of metal’s sub-genres.” Seven Kingdoms professed aim is to team up with a quality record label in order to further their attempt at world domination and in an effort to make that aim a reality they hooked up with the renowned producer Jim Morris of Iced Earth, Deicide and Demons & Wizards fame to record this, their first long player Brothers of the Night  and said platter is well worth seeking out. 

Seven Kingdom make their influences abundantly clear even before you hit play on the CD player, the clothes they parade in their photo shoots stamp their lineage for all to see, HammerFall, Blind Guardian and Iced Earth T shirts abound and suggest that this could be  yet another power metal by the numbers type band. Fortunately that isn't the case with Brothers of the Night as it has something for the metal fan in all of us. In saying that opener Eyes Of Summer is , on the surface, at least a fairly typical power metal song but one which is stands out from the norm thanks to its  powerful chorus and the fact that it is actually rather an uplifting song about freedom. Without wishing to bang on about each track I thought I’d point you towards the best tunes which certainly include Dragonflight (don’t laugh, it’s not like that) which features quite a bewildering range of vocal techniques and is phenomenally heavy in places. Stormborn, on the other hand, is what the band claim to be melodic death metal and the In Flames influences are certainly to the fore and that is never a bad thing.

Since Brothers of the Night was recorded the keyboard player has departed the ranks of Seven Kingdoms  and been replaced with a new female singer named Sabrina Valentine which suggests that the future for Seven Kingdom could well be somewhat intriguing. For now though, Brothers of the Night is well up to scratch.

Contact: sevenkingdomsmetal.com

Simon Bray