Turkish power metal band Saints’N’Sinners released their second album entitled ‘Rise of the Alchemist’ in April with their own record label SNS Records. The first singles from the album caused a sensation in the genre when they started to appear on digital platforms. It seems like Deniz Tuncer who wrote the lyrics and the music keeps the secrets to the ancient science of alchemy and has the power to turn “metal” into gold, as Saints’N’Sinners made one of the most outstanding power/melodic metal albums of 2022 so far.
I must admit that last year, the album self-titled “Helloween” by one of the leading bands in the genre was a disappointment for me except the tracks Skyfall and Fear of the Fallen: tiresome, too long and difficult to listen. After the 2021 “Helloween”, Rise of the Alchemist was a complete satisfaction with the balanced order of tracks in tempo and its heavily melodic structure.
Mehmet Kaya’s proficient, strong, broad-ranged vocals with a Bruce Dickinson style vibrato shines throughout the album like a jewel. In the Rise of the Alchemist, one can notice influences from the leading metal groups, old and new: the album is flawless in musical construction, melodic structure, spectacular guitar solos and chord progressions. If you have already checked my previous music reviews, you might guess how eager I am to proceed with some literary and philosophical impressions. Let’s go:
In today’s fast-paced world shaped with endless consumerism, music is also consumed very quickly. Thus, it becomes essential to write catchy songs and music that leave a strong first impression on the listeners and make them think that the whole album is worth listening. The opening track from Saints’N’Sinners’ Rise of the Alchemist and one of my favorites from the album “As Above So Below” brings the good news in that sense, with its epic, symphonic and catchy intro. Some of the deep and beautiful lyrics are:
About a man seeking out for gold
A thousand years of alchemy
And he’s not losing a single hope.
Other lyrics from this song that caught my eye were: ‘A Lake of Virgin Tears’ and the riming ‘Seven Ravens’.
‘Sign of Things to Come’ describes a shining star in the skies and goes on with the following lyrics, echoing with the wonderful tale of Santiago, the protagonist of Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist and his journey in search of his personal legend:
All of our lives,
We seek the truth somewhere else
But it is just a heartbeat away.
Exotic landscapes, sand dunes, endless journeys and the feeling of adventure appear throughout the lyrics of the album, again reminiscent of Coelho’s The Alchemist. Saints’N’Sinners manages to present the genre’s philosophy through the lyrics full of mythology, legends and fantasy. ‘Death Comes in Winter’ made me think of GOTR’s White Walkers with all its lyrics about ice and snow and its eery intro notes. The track outstands with its melody inspired by the Ukranian new year song Shchedryk (The Little Swallow), which is one of my fave Christmas tunes.(I hereby drop Death Comes in Winter and Shchedryk in Metal Oda Selections Spotify Playlist at the bottom of the page so that you might enjoy them while reading this review.) I also found the last three minutes crescendo and the guitar solos spectacular.
‘Queen of the Nile’ with its oriental setting and its tempo left me with a feeling of Iron Maiden’s ‘The Parchment’ from last year’s Senjutsu. It would be appropriate to note that we see lots of Maiden influence in the whole of the Rise of the Alchemist. (For those of you who do not already know about my passion for Iron Maiden, I suggest you check my previous articles at metaloda.com). The damned and evil queens of Egypt mentioned in the lyrics of the Queen of the Nile left me with a wicked grin on my face when I thought about Anck Su Namun and Ahmanet of the “Mummy”, my beloved characters from the movie, who sold their souls in return of great power.
Let me say a few words about the cover art of the singles from the album and their connection to the Tarot cards. The cover art for ‘As Above So Below’ depicts the card Magician from the Tarot deck. Full of symbolism, the magician or the wizard points to the Heavens with one hand and to Earth with the other: the Magician is the link between the physical and the spiritual worlds (as above, so below) and the Master of the four elements. On the table before him are a cup, a sword, a wand and a pentacle representing the classical elements of earth, air, fire and water. On the top of his head is a sign of infinity representing the endless possibilities of creation.
The eighth track from the album, ‘The Ivory Tower’ is the Tower card from the Tarot deck. The Tower represents disgrace, deception, greed and ruin, built on a defective structure. The destruction of the Tower is essential for the new order to step in: the lyrics of the track emphasize it is necessary to leave the past behind and embrace the change. Last year, we have covered very much in detail the subject of Tarot in connection with the melodic death masters Aether Realm’s wondeful album “Tarot” in Clubhouse Metal Oda broadcasts. Let’s take a closer look at the lyrics of Ivory Tower:
The essence of the universe is inside all of us
We are nothing but children of the stars
These lyrics I believe, echo with theoretical physicist Richard Feynman’s:
I, a universe of atoms, an atom in the universe.
And Rumi’s:
You are not a drop in the ocean; you are an entire ocean in a drop.
And astrophysicist Carl Sagan’s:
The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff.
The track, ‘Rise of the Alchemist’ sets the framework for the album and presents its content with its folkloric intro notes, Maidenesque elements and progressive touches:
In flames we burn the stones
Sulphur, Mercury and Salt,
The dragon eats its tail,
We’re holding Materia Prima in our hands,
Old stars we stand beneath,
Eternal youth we seek.
The alchemist for sure, is also a wizard. When we speak about the magicians, magical stones and the elements, it is essential to remember two great wizards: Merlin and Nicolas Flamel. Alchemist and great wizard, keeper of the Philosopher’s Stone, Nicolas Flamel is one of the main characters of Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, one of the greatest story-tellers of all times. Nicholas Flamel unlocked the secrets of the ancient science of alchemy, created the Philosopher’s Stone and reached immortality. The Materia Prima mentioned in the lyrics of the song is the starting material required for the creation of the Philosopher’s Stone. Speaking of dragons, one of my favorite animals, we can further extend the subject of this article as far as the island of Avalon from the Arthurian Legend, to the mighty Excalibur, to Uther Pendragon, King Arthur’s father, taking his family name from the dragons, and to Kilgharrah the Dragon, Merlin’s friend and protector to King Arthur. King Vortigan who was the ruler in Merlin’s youth wanted to build a tower on a hill; but the tower collapsed each time he finished the construction: the magicians then discovered there were two dragons –red and white- living under the hill, fighting an endless battle: red dragon representing the people of Britain, and the white dragon the Saxon invaders. The Tower in question I believe is the ‘Ivory Tower’ from the album the Rise of the Alchemist and it is astonishing to know that the Red Dragon, protector of Wales still figures on their flag today.
Not forgetting the adorable, half Shrek and half Orc mascot of the band, Virgil, designed by Berker Sönmezler, I say, dear Metalheads, do not fail to listen to one of the best and majestic power metal albums of 2022, the “Rise of the Alchemist” by Saints’N’Sinners.
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