Zelda Dungeon Reviews Zelda Metal Band Master Sword’s Newest Album, The Final Door, Available December 27th
Posted on December 17 2019 by Charles Xavier
Last year, our good friend Joel Siegal, founder of Linktober, started a Heavy Metal-oriented channel in his Discord server. In the midst of links to various metal bands, there was one that stuck out to me: a music video by Zelda-inspired metal band Master Sword. I’ve heard metal covers of Zelda music before, but never anything quite like this. Aside from implementing Zelda music, they add lyrics that coincide with the lore of the franchise, take some creative liberty to add in their own compositions, and do some awesome Zelda themed cosplays! Naturally when the opportunity to review their newest album titled The Final Door came up, I jumped at the opportunity!
This album has been in the making since earlier this year, and with the support of Zelda and metal fans everywhere the band reached their goal on Kickstarter to head into the studio! The end result – what founding member Matt Farkas calls ‘definitely our best work, and something a lot of Zelda fans will really be into.’
Like the band’s previous work, the type of music present in this album is a blend of Power Metal and Progressive Rock; think of bands like Dragonforce, or Rainbow back in the days when Ronnie James Dio was the lead vocalist, mixed with the precision instrumental focus of bands like Rush, Tool, and modernly with Dream Theater.
The album has 7 new songs, with a bonus track of the band’s re-recorded single titled The Forsaken Tribe. Overall, this is a 40 minute album of headbanging fun!
The bar was set pretty high by Master Sword’s previous album, Shadow and Steel. I can confirm The Final Door is an absolutely worthy sequel: Lily Hoy’s vocals have an extra flair, the guitars riffs and solos sound even more epic, and the percussion has a complexity that wasn’t present in the previous album; largely due to the implementation of the double bass drums – this is a staple of the metal sound and it wasn’t used as much in the previous album.
Some of the familiar Zelda music you’ll hear is The Palace theme from Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, The Great Fairy Fountain theme, The Ballad of the Goddess, The Gerudo Valley Theme, the Breath of the Wild Main Theme, and The Shadow Temple music from Ocarina of Time. Additionally, the album kicks off with a soundscape bringing the cover of the Album to life in audio form, and includes a completely original song titled Hero of Time.
Song after song, I found myself getting lost in the music, the whole album is a banger no doubt! It’s so hard to choose a favorite song from the album, but if I had to pick, I’d say A Bloody History is the one I enjoyed the most. It’s so badass the way it starts with the moans of the spirits from the Shadow Temple, leading into the opening power chords, building up into an absolutely sick growling chant!
They nailed the goal which they strive for with each song: successfully mixing in their own compositions in a way that blends perfectly with the Zelda music. I also applaud them for creating relevant lyrics for each song theme and making them work along with the music. I think it’s a huge feat taking music that wasn’t created with the intention of having lyrics, and adding some that work along with it yet doesn’t detach from the brilliance of the music alone.
To conclude, if you are a metal fan and enjoy The Legend of Zelda, I definitely recommend buying this album in some capacity, putting your headphones on and tossing the horns up as you headbang along to each song! The album drops December 27th, in the meantime you can pre-order here via Bandcamp. You’ll have the option to purchase the digital album to stream and download for only $7 USD, a physical CD and digital copy of the album for $15 USD, or the CD, digital copy, and an awesome T-shirt featuring the album’s original artwork for $30 USD. With each pre-order purchase you’ll also get to stream and download 1 song from the album as you wait for the full album to release.
If you still aren’t sold on pre-ordering, you can listen to the song which shares the album’s namesake on Bandcamp, or listen to samples of most of the songs with the Youtube video above!
Do you plan on pre-ordering the album? Which version are you purchasing? Let us know in the comments below!
Images courtesy of Stutter Crust Photography
Charles is a Senior Editor at Zelda Dungeon. He is a Visual Development artist focused on enviroments and pitch paintings. Check out his Instagram and Twitter to see his latest artworks, a lot of which is Zelda fan art! His favorite candy is Skittles – he feels the world should know this.
