Year: 2019
Total Time: 01:04:14                                      
Label: Rock of Angels Records

FRETERNIA released their third studio album, “The Gathering”. After 17 years of silence, one of the founding bands of the Swedish Power Metal sound (dating back to the 90’s), have finally returned.

The Swedish Power Metal pioneers have not lost their enthusiasm. The sound of “The Gathering” is extremely loud and full of energy, with Pasi Humppi’s awesome vocals playing a big role in it. But something is missing. Only a few of the twelve songs (thirteen including the one moment intro) offered here, catch your ear and are really good. Τhοse are “Reborn”, “Last Crusade” and “Change Of Life”. The rest of the album retains the same impetuous sound, but goes almost unnoticed. Too bad, because the potentials of this band are really very high!

So apart from the many tracks on the album, there really isn’t much to mention here. The album admittedly looks like “a collection of tracks put together during a 17-year absence”, which is clearly not a bad thing, but certainly not the result one would expect or what the particular band could ultimately offer.

However, I will be happy to see a new work from them again, in the near future. I believe that the mixture of retro and modern Power Metal by FRETERNIA is something that deserves further exploration and improvement. But until this hypothetical day comes, unfortunately, “The Gathering” is only slightly recommended for fans of the genre.

Rating: 5,5/10
Editor: Fanouris Exintavelonis
Related Link: FRETERNIA – Official Page