That’s a respectable record! Almost completely pleasing. Snappy melodies that range in mid-tempo fields with occasional trips in hymn-like and epical areas. Head and feet are most time nodding. Some melody lines come along quite unoriginal but that is – after thousands of years of musical history – not really an argument of bad rating. What to nag about then? What makes Brothers Of Grief tending to be an average album? There is on one hand the organ of singer Jonas Radehorn. In quiet and relaxed moments it sounds light and is much enjoyable. But as soon as he changes over to faster and more aggressive passages his singing becomes a disturbing factor. Such kind of singing you get en masse and often enough much better performed. A bit of dissociation from other bands of the Progressive/Epic/ Powermetal genre would much benefit THE CITADEL. Besides, the uniform mood becomes too trivial at the end of this record. Where in In The Ashes Of A Dream moments remind of Uriah Heep and cause some surprise, the singing line in following Word Of Silence are just boring. Though the instrumental parts with its pathetic choirs might slap it a bit out, this song generally stays too inconspicuous. Same goes for Hammer Of Divine, whereas the instrumental parts score a bit more.
All things considered there are certainly worse musical companions on the road, but between Dream Theater, Queensryche and Bon Jovi also much better ones than THE CITADEL. Nevertheless, I’m sure Brothers Of Grief will find its way into the CD shelf for a 50 minutes running nice entertainment every now and then.
As measured by the musical shit that gets released every day upon us Brothers Of Grief is – despite of its weaknesses – almost a highlight.