Power Metal is far from enjoying its heyday, at least here in Malta. In the late 1990s and early noughties, a slew of power metal acts did indeed hold regularly well-attended events. However, styles adapted, genres changed and a number of local power metal acts folded or disbanded.
Now, a refreshed act under a new name and boasting new members is back vying for the king’s seat in the court of power metal.
I catch up with Blind Saviour, who, according to the band’s members, “can lay claim to be Malta’s only fully-fledged Power Metal band”.
What exactly is Power Metal? A sub-genre of heavy metal, Power Metal traces back its cultural origins to the late 1970s as a musical meld of traditional metal with speed metal, developed within a symphonic context.
Commenting about the presence of the genre in Malta, Karl Friggieri, bass player of Blind Saviour, believes that a decline in local power metal scene never actually occurred.
He concedes that “over the past 25 years there may have been one or two bands in all”. However, Friggieri justifies this state of affairs by saying that “the style is a demanding one to play” and “the fact there are few power metal bands in Malta does not mean that the style is not appreciated locally”.
So, apart from the onus of being the sole local ambassadors to the genre, what else makes Friggieri and his band mates want to play power metal? Friggieri is unequivocal: “Ultimately, it’s down to our love and passion for the style. Power Metal may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but this is precisely what keeps us wanting to pursue this musical style. This is even more the case here in Malta and it makes us happy to be considered the only active power metal band on the island.”
Blind Saviour is a female-fronted, five-piece power metal outfit founded in 2013. Friggieri is on the bass, Aldo Chircop on guitar and Robert Friggieri on drums. They have been playing live gigs with each other since 1994 under various guises. In 2006, the trio met Rachel Grech, who became the band’s vocalist and in January Campos Gellel and his guitar joined the band as well.
I ask Friggieri the obligatory name origin question.
“The name came about after a brainstorming session. Robert, Aldo and I were discussing the possibility of writing material for a concept album and Friggieri and Robert came up with the name Blind Saviour, which sounded cool enough and which was adopted almost straight away. Soon after that, Friggieri wrote the story around which the songs were based and whose main character would be the Blind Saviour.”
In fact, Blind Saviour’s upcoming debut album, The Master Plan, consists of a collection of tracks revolving around a central story- line featuring characters and places in a post-apocalyptic setting created by the band itself. In Friggieri’s words The Master Plan delves into many of the popular themes associated with power metal, such as “a clearly-defined good versus evil plot and the inclusion of epic battles between surviving human clans and their robot oppressors”. Elaborating on the plot, “the hero of the story is Blind Saviour himself, a character who remains mysterious”.
The band already released two out of the 10 tracks on their new album online, namely The Episode and a snippet from Freedom Call. I ask Friggieri about the band’s approach to writing and recording their songs, as well as who comes up with the inspiration behind the tracks.
“The music of 10 out of the 11 songs on the album is Aldo’s work,” says Friggieri. “After I wrote the album’s overarching storyline, we broke it down into 11 parts or chapters, each one essentially representing a song. From time to time we would meet up to listen to the songs.
The style is a demanding one to play
“While Aldo was recording his parts, Robert and I laid down the drum and bass tracks in a separate studio. Vocals were recorded in a third location owned by the band.”
Back in the day, Blind Saviour used to be called Phantom Lord. What’s the difference between that band and this one?
“Robert, Aldo and I founded Phantom Lord quite a while back and we had a few live gigs between 1999 and 2002. However, we had a different vocalist at the time. Though clear power metal roots were already evident in parts of our songs, essentially Phantom Lord was a thrash metal/speed metal act.”
According to Friggieri, by the time Blind Saviour was born, the band’s musical style had changed and developed into something considerably different through the inclusion of additional rhythm, lead guitars and keyboards during the songwriting process, as well as the incorporation of harmonies and melodies reminiscent of Power Metal.
Moreover, Friggieri believes that “the addition of Rachel on vocals gives the songs a refined edge, adding more melodic versatility and an overall sound which, we think is quite unique to Blind Saviour”.
While most female-fronted metal bands tend to craft their music around a symphonic style of vocals which usually makes the music slower and more Goth-sounding, Blind Saviour surprises listeners by taking a more aggressive metal music approach than is normally expected from a femalefronted band.
“We always wanted to write music in line with traditional power metal and classic metal,” points out Friggieri. “It just happened that the best-fitting vocalist we found was female.”
I ask Friggieri what goals and targets the band aspires to achieve in the future.
“Naturally, as the musicians mature a band can evolve,” he muses, “but we have always stayed true and intend to stay true to the main elements which distinguish our music. We see this as a process of advancement and refinement without abandon-ing the core elements.”
The band is looking forward to releasing their debut album, The Master Plan, and intend to follow it up with new material, gigs and, tentatively, even a tour or two abroad.
Blind Saviour will be playing on Friday at the Xmas Metal Bash, Rookies Bar, Bugibba, with Angelcrypt and Chaotic Remains at the third edition of the Xmas Metal Bash at Rookies Bar in Bugibba.