{"id":631681,"date":"2026-09-21T19:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T19:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/631681\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T19:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T19:04:09","slug":"valkyries-fire-out-of-darkness-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/631681\/","title":{"rendered":"Valkyrie’s Fire – Out of Darkness Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Most of my AMG time recently has gone to tech issues , but I\u2019ve been wanting to write again. Valkyrie\u2019s Fire\u2019s debut Out of Darkness lured me back with a Nightwish namedrop, which is a dangerous promise, for all that it sounds enticing. In principle, I\u2019m a big fan of power metal, symphonic metal, and indeed symphonic power metal. Alas, as I wrote in my section of the Nightwish ranking<\/a>, symphonic metal is plagued by terrible, boring bands. It\u2019s much easier to ape the style than it is to write great songs. I don\u2019t know why this is such a problem for this genre in particular, but it doesn\u2019t need to be this way, and so hope springs eternal.<\/p>\n

Valkyrie\u2019s Fire avoid this problem on two axes. First, Out of Darkness isn\u2019t actually that beholden to Nightwish tropes, with the possible exception of \u201cSkylark.\u201d Yes, they do the duet vocal thing a lot and one of them is a soprano. But the core style they establish early on (\u201cEvermore,\u201d \u201cValkyrie\u2019s Fire,\u201d etc.) reminds me a lot more of Rhapsody\u2019s many iterations, replete with neoclassical twiddling. Second, and more importantly, this is good actually. It\u2019s fun in a way that doesn\u2019t feel forced. The songs are well-written and memorable. They experiment with a variety of genre embellishments. Some songs have a core-y twist that evokes a little Avenged Sevenfold (meant positively!\u2014\u201dBurning Sky,\u201d \u201cI Will Rise Again\u201d). Others use cello and acoustic guitar to add a folky feel (\u201cBone and Thorn\u201d), or more delicate piano (\u201cShattered,\u201d \u201cI see the Angels Fly\u201d). This keeps things fresh and stops any one song sounding too much like all the others.<\/p>\n

There is one classic symphonic metal trap Valkyrie\u2019s Fire do fall solidly into, though: a regrettable inability to edit. Out of Darkness is over 70 minutes long, and it really doesn\u2019t need to be. By track twelve, my attention span is definitely strained, and there are still fifteen minutes left of the record. With tighter editing, there\u2019d be a punchy 45-minute album here. I get that it\u2019s hard, as none of the tracks here are total clangers. I probably wouldn\u2019t miss \u201cValkyrie\u2019s Fire\u201d or \u201cNocturne,\u201d and many others could use editing down (\u201cBone and Thorn\u201d is a pretty folk piece but doesn\u2019t need to be seven minutes, \u201cCascade\u201d could shed a couple of minutes, ten-minute closer \u201cI Will Rise Again\u201d gets a bit too theatrical). This isn\u2019t universal\u2014\u201dDark Moon\u201d is nearly seven minutes but carries its length well, \u201cBurning Sky\u201d is a neat four\u2014but it does affect most of the record.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve mentioned before being drawn to well-performed duet vocals, and Valkyrie\u2019s Fire are excellent here, with Bettie Floyd on soprano and Adam Sanders on baritone. The vocal melody writing is really good. They use alternating phrases, harmonies, and counterpoint to great effect. This works particularly well combined with Salem Belladonna\u2019s piano and cello on the Clair Obscur-via-doom-metal \u201cShattered,\u201d where Floyd is at her best. Her range spans from the symphonic metal standard soprano to a poppy tone that reminds me a little of Diablo Swing Orchestra\u2019s current vocalist (\u201cLabyrinth\u201d). There\u2019s one or two bits of vocal direction I don\u2019t quite get on with (just a couple of phrases in \u201cEvermore\u201d and \u201cValkyrie\u2019s Fire\u201d), but it\u2019s a very minor blip.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m really pleasantly surprised by Out of Darkness. My genre cynicism was mostly unfounded. I often find the mark of a good record is finding lots of bits of it slipping into my head when I\u2019m doing other things (versus having one line going irritatingly round and round). Out of Darkness has done that. Most years, there\u2019s at least one record that reminds me I still love symphonic\/power metal. This is very nearly that record for 2026, but the marathon length just adds a tiny bit too much mental effort to listening to it. If Valkyrie\u2019s Fire can kill their darlings next time around, I\u2019m sold.<\/p>\n

\ufeff<\/p>\n

Rating: Good
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb\/s mp3
Label: Eclipse Records<\/a>
Websites: valkyriesfire.com<\/a> | facebook.com\/valkyriesfireofficial<\/a>
Releases Worldwide: September 18th, 2026<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most of my AMG time recently has gone to tech issues , but I\u2019ve been wanting to write…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[23197,5809,14120,268102,268103,93,61,60,278,103666,268104,21240,563,564,268105,259757,88510,268106,268107],"class_list":["post-631681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-23197","tag-3-0","tag-american-metal","tag-diablo-swing-orchestra","tag-eclipse-records","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music","tag-nightwish","tag-out-of-darkness","tag-power-metal","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-rhapsody","tag-sep26","tag-symphonic-metal","tag-symphonic-power-metal","tag-valkyries-fire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}