Revivified, returned and no less inspired by the nascent glories of a classic niche Peñaflor, Chile-based heavy/speed metal quartet ARMOURED KNIGHT arrive upon their debut full-length album intending to invoke the early evolution of power metal beyond its speed metal boosted origins. ‘The Quest for the Sacred Melody‘ is naturally an 80’s metal record in this regard and a melodious one at that while still bearing the muscle memory of the rugged faster paced arms race of a bygone era. While the result is not adventurous beyond those general climes and may not prove heart-stoppingly memorable their work still speaks directly to an authentic fandom which escapes any too-rote emulation of storied greats.

Armoured Knight officially formed back in 2009 by way of guitarist/engineer Cristian León who was best known as an original guitarist for Ripper and later bands like Hemisferio and (then) co-guitarist Francisco Sanhueza who would form Hellish no long after. While much of their past was rooted in classic thrash metal aggression the focus of this band was female fronted heavy metal, specifically taking cues from mid-’80s power/speed metal bands a la Helloween, Savage Grace, and Pokolgép. Throughout their history they’ve made a point to pause and reconfigure when needed wherein earlier lineups built up to a debut EP (‘Prophecy of Tomorrow‘, 2014) before a mostly new crew emerged for a Mark II config and a second EP (‘The Sacred Flame‘, 2020). “Blind Loyalty” from that sophomore EP exemplified the ‘Battalions of Fear‘ juiced sound of the band at that point with an increasing focus on upward-shot shred readied guitar with some modest use of harmonized interjections to extend the moment. Their work up to that point had become increasingly anthemic, a jogging level of melodicism dependent on early German power-speed metal’s evolution for movement as well as the arguably more fitting vocals from new vocalist José Tapia (Mortal Whisper) who’d joined around 2017 and first featured on the preemptive single ‘Ashes of Glory‘. The lineup of ‘The Sacred Flame‘ returns after an extended hiatus for this new album with the exception of drummer Nicolás Pastene (who is now in Mental Devastation) and instead Mario Vera of Suppression performs on this album.

The title of this album should naturally create some expectation of melodic breakthrough but I don’t want to steer expectations fully towards say, ‘Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt. I‘ while keeping just a much distance from the harder Priest inspired side of ‘Walls of Jericho‘ in terms of grittier speed metal sounds backing bouts of shred and layered vocal harmonies to suit. My mind veers toward Rage‘s ‘Execution Guaranteed‘ and maybe some earlier Running Wild for the actual render where the bite of the rhythm guitar tone on songs like “Age of Speeches” and “Run From Here” are delivered with some extra force, accentuating ramping progressions without resembling auld United States speed metal guitar techniques/rhythms too directly. At any rate anyone familiar with the mid 80’s Noise Records catalog (non-remastered sounds specifically) and the general emergence of German power metal should feel entirely comfortable with both the sound and melodic voice of ‘The Quest for the Sacred Melody‘ but that isn’t to say that a fan of Omen or even ‘Éjszakai bevetés‘ won’t find timbre and attack gleaned from more raw underground heavy metal mining herein (re: “Endless Light“.)

The aforementioned “Age of Speeches” was the first song to pique my interest in preview but primarily for the guitar work, riffs and their power/speed metal hand though I have to admit the vocals don’t fully carry the melody at the heart of the song, specifically the chorus’ rise, to its potential. This is just one song, though, the overall versatility and ambition of the vocals outshine a few of the less energetic pieces and I’d felt “Forgotten Grace” was one of the better examples of the band’s embrace of power metal helping to pull their sound away from anything too arcane or naive. For my own taste an album of songs that hit closer to the trampling simplicity of “Run From Here” are the sweet spot for this group and they could just iterate on that type of hook throughout but the stuff that hits closer to early 90’s power metal doesn’t necessarily hurt the dynamic of the full listen, in fact it seems to be the major focus of Armoured Knight‘s return.

The true dilemma of nascent power metal sounds nearby the decline of speed/thrash metal (re: a pre-‘Painkiller‘ world) was really the choice between pro-level vocals and shred as leading voice rather than the riff… and with this point of view in mind ‘The Quest for the Sacred Melody‘ speaks more to me as a study of a sweet spot where the riff was still an important (but not the most important) component of power metal’s energetic aggression. From that angle Armoured Knight have brought a NWOTHM apropos balance to an unsteady concoction and the result is basically just solid melodic heavy metal with an appreciable speed/thrash metal aftertaste. If you hang on any one aspect of their craft it might not prove all that memorable, the melodic impact of the album’s compositions appears purposefully narrowed for the sake of a specific sound, but for those who’re after ancient sounds delivered in the vacuum of 80’s underground taste these ~35 minutes should prove entertaining. A moderately high recommendation.

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