Band: The Ferrymen
Album: A New Evil
Release Date: 11th October 2019
Record Label: Frontiers Records
After stumbling upon The Ferrymen’s self titled debut about two years ago now and been absolutely blown away the entire way through, when The Ferrymen announced a followup I knew I needed to give it a good old listen and review, as I hadn’t really started up this little venture when The Ferrymen was released.
Don’t Stand In My Way is the first track on A New Evil, and it is certainly not standing in the way of me enjoying this album right from the off. There is an orchestral and epic buildup which leads to a heavy, bassy, fast instrumental which is perfect for headbanging. Ronnie Romero has amazing vocal talent and that is not scrimped on. With an easy to learn chorus, this is a great and powerful start.
Bring Me Home begins with a choir, guitar, and piano. It has a mid-paced, marching tempo, and there is an epic feeling which is ripe for a power fist. A piano and drum build up leads to an epic guitar solo. The title track, A New Evil, has a slightly faster pace with a catchy chorus, and it’s another one that’s easy to sing along to.
A headbanging but not too heavy instrumental makes The Night People Rise. The instrumental in the verses is lighter, and there is definitely plenty of opportunity to raise your fists in the air. A female choir, percussion, and strings introduces Save Your Prayers before the full band kicks in with some “Woah!”‘s. The instrumental is fast paced with distorted guitar and headbanging verses. Once again there’s a singalong chorus, and there is an amazingly fast guitar solo in there for good measure. Heartbeat is probably one of the closest tracks to a ballad on the album, with a piano and vocal introduction, and a stripped down instrumental during the verses.
We are all Our Own Heroes with a motivational power track. There is a guitar and drum build-up with a dramatic choir. There is a fast paced tempo and yet another great singalong chorus. To keep the motivational theme going, No Matter How Hard We Fall brings piano followed by hard hitting guitar, it makes you feel like you can conquer anything!
The album as a whole generally begins to slow down for the final three tracks, though there are still hard and fast sections in the tracks. My Dearest Fear seems to be about forbidden love, with epic guitar to start, slower paces for verses, and finally a fade out. Guitar, drums and a choir make You Against The World, and there are both hard and fast, and slower sections. Finally, piano and vocal are All We Got, with a mid-tempo good feel, with a half-ballad section during a guitar solo.
The Ferrymen once again have released their own brand of heavy metal onto the world in the form of A New Evil, combining fantasy, motivational, and lost love themes with hard hitting metal and slower, ballad-like sections. With the addition of Ronnie Romero’s outstandingly powerful vocals, it’s a formula that just can’t go wrong!
For me, The Ferrymen’s self titled debut was going be a big album to live up to. I had very, very high expectations after that as it was so powerful and left me with a lasting impression. I really enjoy A New Evil, and I’m sure it will grow on me more, I just feel it’s not quite at the same calibre as The Ferrymen when I first listened to it. Maybe that’s because it left me in shock and awe as I hadn’t heard anything from this band before.
That is not to say I’m disappointed by this album, hence the 9/10.
Verdict: 9/10
Buy The Ferrymen music and merch: https://www.frontiers.shop/search?sSearch=the+ferrymen
Listen to The Ferrymen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6THX1gyfwGIwiPSyU5ffL7
Follow The Ferrymen on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheFerrymenofficial/
Ostara Metal 