Graven Sin don’t do things by halves; On their debut full-length album, Veil of the Gods, the Cypriot-Finnish trio go big at every opportunity, in the process creating a gargantuan wall of sound that can’t help but appeal to anyone with what we call in the trade ‘a metal heart’…

But seriously, it’s rare to hear a debut album so fully formed and seemingly devoid of weakness. Graven Sin know exactly what it takes to make epic, traditional metal, with each of the eleven songs here displaying a very mature grasp of songwriting principles and utterly sure footed musicianship. For an album where only one song edges over the six minute mark, the band have managed to forge an album where ‘epic’ really is the only accurate descriptor to use. Nicholas Leptos uses his massive voice to devastating effect throughout, but most noticeably on the superb chug of The Scarlet Night, a track which leaves the listener breathless with it’s brilliance; Fit to be mentioned in the same breath as the greats – and in this context that means Dio-era Sabbath – Leptos lays waste to all in his path with a heartstopping performance that simply has to be heard to be believed.

Beyond Mesopotamia adds a steely hint of US power metal to the mix thanks to some great drumming from Ville Markanen and the superior lead work of Ville Pystynen, but for the most part VotG is an album that casts back to the oldest metal Gods in terms of reference points. That said, they’ve created an absolutely timeless sound here; the discreet keyboard embellishments occasionally tip the cap to Rainbow (Dio-era, natch), but this is an album that never sounds dated or hackneyed. Graven Sin is clearly a band that knows it’s own mind, stylistically, and have very much forged their own sound accordingly. And I must say I like that sound very much indeed!

Veil of The Gods releases on November 3rd.