Pentakill - Smite and Ignite
Independent
Power Metal
8 songs (30'30'')
Release year: 2014
Reviewed by Jared

I’ve always thought that combining both the video game world and metal was risky, but yet a cool venture for both. A couple years back I thoroughly enjoyed the game Brutal Legend, which probably contained one of the best soundtracks in gaming history. It had just about the perfect mix of bands and genres. However, I’ve never seen a game developer specifically create its own album specifically for a game and its fans, namely the popular League of Legends. Tailoring towards more power metal fans, this album has created a pretty big buzz, so I thought it was time to check out this free album by the fictional band Pentakill.

If you’re looking for catchy and feel good choruses, Smite and Ignite just might be the answer. Lightbringer begins slower than expected, sounding more like an mix of industrial and power metal, but the main chorus is a for sure a show stealer, and easy to get into. Jorn Lande of bands Masterplan and Ark, leads the vocal charge on Lightbringer, and does a completely outstanding job.

Deathfire Grasp is another catchy song to the album’s start, but contains much more polished guitar work. It’s quite surprising the amount of depth this album can get into despite being made specifically for fans of League of Legends, especially with the guitar solo found here. Ohmwrecker gets a little more hardcore sounding than power metal, but has a pretty good rhythm with the chug of the guitars. The first half of the album is unexpectedly good for a video game based album, but it’s much harder to get into during the second half.

The second half is more of a bore than I was expecting. For example, the complete turn around and use of more electronic and industrial music in the track The Hex Core just did not have anything that seemed to want to pull me in the slightest bit. However the ending track, The Orb of Winter is an entirely symphonic piece with surprisingly satisfying results. Being a sucker for symphonic metal, movie scores, and orchestra, I found the ending track to salvage the broken pieces that made up the second half the album.

League of Legends fans are bound to enjoy this one a hell of a lot. But what for the average metal listener? I can’t say for sure. But for the free download admission, there’s no real reason to not at least check this little over 30 minutes of music. There are some catchy songs to be heard at least on the first half, but deviates towards a direction in the second half that didn't feel nearly as adequate.

Killing Songs :
Lightbringer, Deathfire Grasp, Orb of Winter
Jared quoted 65 / 100
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