Glacier - Spears of the Empire

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Although Glacier (from Portland Oregon) may have gotten their start in the 1980’s, they really hit their resurgence with 2020’s Passing of Time. This Power Metal group takes heavy influences of NWOBHM and merges them with the more prog sound of a Queensryche. Vocalist Michael Podrybaus while no Geoff Tate, (but then again who is), is nevertheless strong and polished enough to carry the epic Power Metal sound yet keep it clean and almost a bit sanitized on this latest EP release.

Holding just two songs, the title track Spears of the Empire, and the World of the Will, Glacier seems to be exploring ancient conquest from two sides. While Spears of the Empire looks at it from a quest for glory perspective, The World & the Will lyrically delves into more of the dark underbelly of conquest and how conquest actually produces enslavement. As a follow up to their full length Passing of Time album, Spears of the Empire is a nice teaser of more to come from this band who have, over the last five years, performed live at such noteworthy festivals as Germanys Keep it True and Open Air, Greece’s Up the Hammer, and (more locally) at Chicago’s Legions of Metal and Seattle’s Northwest Metalfest. Although only a two song EP, Glacier seems fit to unleash another avalanche of sound later this year, and if you are a fan of clean strong Power Metal, you may want to pick it up when they do.

Songwriting: 7
Musicianship: 7
Memorability: 6
Production: 7