UK’s Phaëthon returns with their debut album, Wielder of the Steel, after releasing an impressive EP in 2020 Sacrifice Doth Call.  I had to look up on the net what the heck the band name means and it reads: “Phaethon also spelled Phaëthon, is the son of the Oceanid Clymene and the sun god Helios in Greek mythology. Phaethon. The Fall of Phaeton Statue”.  The band members go by a bunch of mythical names and this album is 8 songs in 43 minutes extremely fun,  and is quite a catchy blend of epic Heavy and Power Metal.

“Eternal Hammerer” starts things off with an amazing guitar tone, that screams epic greatness.  If you like bands such as Eternal Champion and or Visigoth, especially in the vocal department Phaëthon must be on your radar, NOW.  This song picks up speed with quite a variety of vocal tones and you can tell this band is having a lot of fun.  This song moves and has soaring vocal and guitar melodies all over this album opener.  The song mixes in a lot of power metally speeds and this is only a three-and-a-half minute tune, yet it feels more epic than you can imagine.

“Vanguard of the Emperor” is up next starting with a great mid-paced moment with extraordinary guitar harmonies and the guitar tone is super catchy with excellent vocal moments and chorus.  The main riff stays the course and the vocals get a little deeper among all the music, with some atmospherics at the three-minute mark.  One would expect these moments with this style of metal.  Soft acoustic moments with piped-in sounds and spoken word moments, as the drums provide the necessary backdrop as the vocal arias in the background get louder.  After this moment we are treated almost to an homage of a musical style one not too far removed from the first two Iron Maiden albums.  The ending of this song with the vocals and guitar harmonies, are stunning.  At over six minutes there is a lot crammed into this one and the song lengths vary quite a bit.

“Blasphemers” at  four minutes is my favorite song on the album, with the epic buildup with the rhythm section thumping, of Aees on bass, Decado on guitar, vox, keys, Vrath on guitars/vox and Oskarath on drums.  The isolated guitar riff, with soft drums in the background continue to build and build and then explode into an epic power metal speed.  The vocal tones and chorus with the song title being sung, is quite honestly the catchiest piece in metal, for 2024, in my opinion. The song slows then rips back into the power metal speed with a killer guitar solo towards the end of the song.  I love that the band continue to go back to the chorus, vocal tones and guitar harmonies, several times throughout.  This song will become embedded in your brain for days on end.  I have had this album for a few months, prior to release, and I have listened to this so many times, with pressing repeat so many times on this track, I lost count after 50x, no joke.

The title track at close to 10 minutes ends this fascinating album.  The song brandishes more of an epic heavy metal/doom-style structure before the mid-paced moments take center stage.  There are quite a lot of nods to old-school NWOBHM moments, like early Maiden as well as the first Angelwitch album.  The ending with the bashing of the drums and the vocals and guitars is a thing of beauty.  This album cover is excellent and goes well with the song titles.

The production is organic and not overly produced.  This has a warmth to it and never sounds plastic.  Wielder of the Steel is a stunning debut album by Phaëthon.  The spirit of metal runs high with this band and from the birthplace of Heavy Metal, of all places.

[Visit the band's website]

---

Comments