I knew nothing about Celtic Legacy when their nice packaged promo arrived in my mailbox. I did a bit of research on the web, and it seems they have been a very big thing in the underground which totally have passed me by. They have done two self produced albums (Celtic Legacy from 1998 and Resurrection from 2003) and with Guardian of Eternity they've finally found a label in Eternal Legacy Records. Due to their huge status in the underground I had great expectations for Guardian of Eternity. Were my expectation met? Well... Both yes and no.

Celtic Legacy plays a sort of NWOBHM with a bit of Celtic elements every now and then. The guitars reminds me a lot of Iron Maiden, very nice duelling solos with a Maiden'esque touch indeed. Most of the song are mid-tempo classic heavy metal tracks. The Sentinel is a calm Celtic intro followed by Celtica which shows some superb guitar riffing and a very memorable chorus, a killer in every sense. The next 4 tracks shows the same style and tempo, but never reaches the same standards, not that the tracks are bad though, they just seem a bit anticlimactic after the very fine start. With Erinmor things get a little up-tempo and the track reminds of old Helloween, definitely a breath of fresh air after 5 mid-tempo songs. Dance On Yer Grave is more Hard Rock oriented (Whitesnake comes to mind), another superb track. The closer, Guardian of Eternity, shows the band at their best with an 11+ epic which holds a lot of Celtic folk elements and different heavy metal moods.... Very good closer.

Well, Celtic Legacy is indeed a talented band, no doubt about it. But I really can't see what the fuzz is all about, sure they deliver fine heavy metal, but not groundbreaking in any sense of the word. I had expected a lot more Celtic inspiration from the band, but the Irish folk elements appears rarely and randomly. This is not a bad album at all, this is indeed a very nice NWOBHM album and you'll find something to like if you dig Iron Maiden (and who doesn't).

A very good album, I had just expected a bit more originality...