Italy’s Elvenking is described as folk power metal and while there is a violinist amongst their ranks, I think that they would be better described as just power metal and drop the folk altogether. This is not meant to be disparaging about Elvenking. "Red Silent Tides" has a lot of excellent stuff on it. It’s just that I had visions of something sounding in the vein of either Finntroll, Korpiklaani, Primordial, or even Skyclad. I must admit, and while I am certain Italy has its fair share of folk stylings, I had trouble imagining what an Italian folk metal band might sound like. Unfortunately, Elvenking do not satisfy this curiosity. Despite this issue, this is a unique release and has, in fact, left me wondering: a) how will they progress from here and b) how did they evolve to this sound.

"Red Silent Tides" starts off quite promising with ‘Dawnmelting’, a fast paced love song of sorts from what I could decipher of the lyrics. Vocalist, Damna’s voice is quite clean and poppy. He does not belt out or go into any falsetto ranges but keeps a lightness in his delivery. Each song carries this effect from the timber of his voice. There is no despair or any negative emotion in his voice. I am quickly reminded of (and this is not a negative thing despite the left-handed complimentary nature of what I am about to report) the 80’s hair metal vocalists, eg. Firehouse, Slaughter, etc.

The use of Dennis Ward (Pink Cream 69) as producer definitely shows up in the way majority of the songs sound. There is a distinct hard rock element to them. The only tunes that differ from this are: ‘Runereader’, ‘Your Heroes Are Dead’, and ‘The Nightmare Will Never End’. The songs that have a very pronounced 80s hard rock vibe and sound are ‘The Last Hour’, ‘What’s Left of Me’ (which sounds like a Starship cover song), and ‘Those Days’ (which has some Bon Jovi-ish moments).

Overall, it is very hard to discern the folk element. The violin (which makes Elvenking quite unique and I give them kudos for that) does get lost in their sound except for a few points. This is both a good and a bad thing. It demonstrates how effective the instrument is in creating a full sound and how capable Lethien is at handling his own in the band. On the other hand, it can easily be mistaken as just a dude playing keyboards and diminish the uniqueness. I am still uncertain where the folk is in Elvenking but I suspect it got buried by the hard rock element.

Still, this is not a bad release but don’t expect an Italian Skyclad. Finally, would I go out and buy their back catalogue? Probably not, but I am now left with a new found appreciation and respect for Elvenking even if they don’t match my tastes entirely. If they were a support to a fav band, I wouldn’t want to miss their set.