Dragon Skull – Chaos Fire Vengeance [Things You Might Have Missed 2025]

Greece is a surprising hotbed for power metal-adjacent sounds, providing recent gems such as Sunburst last year and Sacred Outcry’s 2023 masterpiece.1 Dragon Skull is a newcomer to these fields of glory, introducing their burly heavy/power style on their promising self-titled EP as recently as 2022. Now, three years later, they were finally ready to unleash their debut Chaos Fire Vengeance on the world. And oh my, what an entrance it is.

Dragon Skull know how to riff like hell and craft anthemic, cataclysmically heavy tunes. In addition to the fist-pumping Manowar feel the band is going for (“Brethren,” “Skull Crusher”), the songwriting is further guided by the spirit of German power metal, something like Brainstorm further reinforced with later Blind Guardian bombast (“Nampat,” “Blood and Souls”). But what makes the instrumentation incendiary is how guitarists Panos Wallach and Chris Brintzikis take influence from several directions at once. This guarantees plenty of variety through the album’s eight tracks, ranging from the dual-harmonized NWoBHM of “Brethren” to the melodeath/meloblack-informed tremolos on “Shield Maiden.” To top it all off, the pummeling war drums of Teo Stamatiadis and gargantuan vocals of Aris Labos lend maximum grit to an already muscular record.

Chaos Fire Vengeance by Dragon Skull

Chaos Fire Vengeance offers a refreshing mixture of ’80s heavy metal and ’00s power metal. Slower, anthemic annihilation is counterpointed by thunderous fury, often during the same song (“Dragon Riders,” Shield Maiden”). The extra melodic death metal DNA brings with it a welcome burst of harsh vocals as well (“War Drums,” “Skeleton Hand”), and the way it all gels effortlessly is impressive. Despite the amount of various elements and influences in the album, the end result is deceivingly simple and effective. It makes Dragon Skull’s style stand out in a similar way Triumpher’s shtick does, but the increased mass and grit of Chaos Fire Vengeance improves the formula from good to face-melting. Though the first half of the album is already potent, the second half is where the band’s ambitions are fully realized. The hooks in “Nampat” and “Skeleton Hand” are immense, and the gargantuan epic “Blood and Souls” is a serious Song o’ the Year contender. I mean, how can you not love a song with Elric and Tanelorn-themed lyrical homages to Cirith Ungol and Blind Guardian?2

Dragon Skull is single-handedly carrying the power metal torch this year. Sure, it might be more heavy/power, but who’s counting? The songwriting is superbly anthemic, and the band knocked it out of the park on their first try in 42 brief minutes. I’ve had some trouble getting all my writing done late in the year for countless reasons, and this album in particular felt difficult to write deeper analysis for. But maybe it’s not necessary. After all, what is a TYMHM but a long-winded way to say “this album rocks, go check it out?” Sometimes it’s just better to keep things short and simple, and all Chaos Fire Vengeance needs is a damn strong barrage of eight massive tunes. Better yet, it’s a brilliant blueprint Dragon Skull can use to further refine their songcraft.

Tracks to Check Out: “Nampat,” “Skeleton Hand,” and “Blood and Souls.”

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