Madog is a melodic speed power metal (how’s that for a genre name) band from Austria. No, not the country known for Crocodile Dundee. Fairytales Of Darkness (FOD) is Madog’s sophomore release, following-up Dreamland from 1999. The band started out in 1992, but musical differences caused them to part ways three years later, before the band was reinstated in ’97. Since then they have made power metal and nothing else. Yet, I wasn’t expecting much; the CD title (and cover), and their Austrian ethnicity didn’t really fill my heart with joy. I didn’t even know they sold amplifiers in Austria, let alone they had bands there. Although I know these things are stupid, Austria does make me think about lots of mountains, snow, skiing and obese women carrying twenty jugs of beer in one scoop. However, I found myself pleasantly surprised by Madog’s qualities.

Melodic speed power metal with the emphasis on the word speed. FOD is quite a fast album, it is said to sound somewhat like Blind Guardian and Grave Digger, whom I do not know any music of.

A speedy album can be very boring after a couple of songs, but Madog has enough creativity to keep you interested for the hour long ride. A pretty good feature, I would say.

This is actually the second issuing of Fairytales Of Darkness, because it already came out in 2002, but by then, they did not have a record deal, so they decided to do everything themselves, and distributed the album in Germany and Austria only. Now, they have a chance to go worldwide. And I think they deserve it. The parts just fit together very well; the CD has a good production, very good instrumental performances and more than adequate vocals. In my opinion that makes for a good, solid album, worthy of bringing in some bucks for Madog, who deserve the credit. They deserve to sell at least a lot more than the thousand CDs they’ve sold with Dreamland.