Release date: 09/03/2025

Athens, Greece’s epic/heavy metal super group, DragonSkull bring forth their highly anticipated debut album; “Chaos Fire Vengeance”. Filled with high- sounding tracks and pure epic-ness that will make you, the listener, feel as if you are going into a fantasy type battle, delivering the necessary ingredients to what epic metal stands for: pure heavy metal with a complimentary side of power metal to keep the listeners satisfied!

“Chaos Fire Vengeance” greatly encapsulates the themes of fantasy war and badassery in all of their tracks, with the addition of sound effects mixed throughout the songs, it truly becomes an immersive experience with aiding in setting the tone of the tracks. I personally believe “Chaos Fire Vengeance”, is the coat of arms that truly represents what DragonSkull is all about as a band and what they deliver through this album and their music overall.

Review

Brethen quickly invades with thunder in the background, instantly setting the tone along with commanding vocals from Aris “Ares” Labos. Guitar riffs come in to join the fight, as well as the drumming parts that quite literally make you feel as if you are on a medieval battle to fight and honor your kingdom. If you can imagine that, that is exactly what this track feels like. The riffs and guitar solos on this track are just beyond amazing, definitely gets the listener hooked. It is a cool, and grandiose opening track for the album!

Dragon Riders begins with once again, cool and melodic guitar guitar harmonies. It is a nice paced track, with catchy riffs throughout the song. The vocals truly help with giving the listener the image of being true dragon riders. The song itself with the guitar solos and chunky bass lines makes you feel as if you are literally riding a dragon. Towards the end of the track, it does a great job with leaving a mental image of the listener in metal armor, holding a sword and riding a dragon. It truly is a kick ass track overall.

Skull Crusher comes crushing in with a demanding opening from hard hitting drums in a mid-tempo, building it up gradually as if the Skull Crusher were stalking his way up to his target with the intent on literally crushing them. But in this case, the music is what is crushing the listener, in a good way, I promise. The song is centered around this character, hence the title of the song. It is a nice, a bit slower, melodic but heavy track nonetheless!

War Drums sets the tone with very demanding drum beats, of course reflecting the song title. This track is one of the two longer tracks on the album, nearing almost 7 minutes of pure heaviness and legendary guitar melodies, thundering vocals and story-telling lyrical content that set the perfect foundation for this specific track. This song also peek into the more instrumental side of the band, conveying and showcasing Christos’ and Pano’s guitar work with the strong support of George’s bass and Thodoris on drums.

Nampat is one of the coolest songs on this album in my personal opinion, it fires off quick and is so energetic that it just gets your head banging quite instantly. It’s an interesting song, especially for those who are fans of “Lord of The Rings”, as the word is used as a chant just like in this track. The instrumentation and vocal delivery in this track blend and compliment the lyrical themes just perfectly!

Skeleton Hand begins with a nice solid tempo that quickly builds up to a harder punch, very nice intricate guitar riffage throughout the track, the vocals once again deliver with that full almost growling tone that set the mood and theme of the song very well. Skeleton hand goes straight to the point, striking hard with fantastic melodies and thundering drumming. It is catchy, enjoyable and overall a fun track as well!

Shield Maiden, this track comes in full blast, it is definitely one of the more energy-filled tracks in this album. It is heavy, it is speedy, it is loud, it is so much fun to listen to. Not only that but it is also catchy! “Shield Maiden, Shield Maiden”. One of the factors that stood out to me personally was the drumming at the start of the track, it is heavy and tight. It is unquestionably, one of the best features of this song.

Blood and Souls concludes the album with a little over 6 minute run time, being one of the two longest songs on this album, but packed with great musicianship as usual. The song is interestingly centered around a fictional character “Elric of Melnibone”, by an English writer named Michael Moorcock. Blood and Souls begins melodic once again but crawls up into more high intensity and super charged tempos to ensure a strong closing to the album, which of course does an awesome job in concluding “Chaos Fire Vengeance”.

Conclusion

The album over all is boisterous, electrifying, and just straightforward heaviness. It dips into fantasy stories about war, Emperors, Gods, etc. If you are into fantasy, or are a fan of Lord of the rings and Dungeons & Dragons, for example, I believe this album perfectly delivers into those kinds of themes. But if you are also into heavy, power, and even speed metal, this album can also satisfy!

TheNwothm Score: 8.5/10

Links

Bandcamp: https://dragonskull.bandcamp.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DragonSkullGR

Instagram: @Dragonskull_theband

Label: Eat Metal Records