GOTHIC KNIGHTS
($12 in U.S., $15 worldwide, from Sentinel Steel)
This New York band's debut album is a haven for those nostalgic fans of 1980's heavy metal, the kind of high quality work Metal Blade was putting out with bands like Tyton, Cities, Warlord, etc. Gothic Knights leaves no tolerance for the dreary trends of today. The music is tight, well played, and focused pure heavy metal, ranging from quasi-thrash stylings in "Bridgekeeper", but returning faithfully to mid-80's album structure with the ballad, "Heart of Sorrow". The vocals are just what you'd hope for, clear, passionate, and exuberant. "War in the Sky" is the showcase track on the album, soaring and devastatingly epic, capturing a feeling of magic and medieval warfare. This is a solid faithful album, and while it couldn't be more hopelessly outdated in all the corporate trends, it is that much fonder to those of us who hold such fantasy anthems dear to our hearts. Not up to the sheer emotional glory of my favorite works, like the latest Virgin Steele, but still tremendously satisfying.
MERCURY RISING
Upon Deaf Ears
($13 in U.S., $15 worldwide, from Sentinel Steel)
This American band's debut release is simply and utterly devastating. One of the best new American releases I've heard in a long time. This album simply has everything, a unique style that is at once faithful to all the heavy metal psyche of yore, but yet its own fresh blend. It manages to capture both uplifting emotion and keen intellect into a lyrical blend that is utterly compelling. The vocals are powerful, strong, and passionate, mixing elements of Geoff Tate, Rob Halford, and John Arch into an ascendant note. The music has its progressive leanings, complex enough to be impressive, and yet the songwriting is utterly seductive. A new song would grow in my head and heart each time I heard this album, just like my favorite albums on the past. First it was the reworked version of "Minute Man" that had originally appeared on the Tomorrow the World compilation, with an absolutely mesmerizing chorus, in a song which personified Time watching over mankind. Then it was the epic, "Where Fear Ends", with such poignant emotional epiphany to its lyrics and equally strong music. Then...what was it, "Halfway to Forever", with its speed metal leanings? Or perhaps the delicacy of the acoustic "Prayer"? But suffice it to say, they fell one by one. This is a must for fans of the best of Dream Theater, Savatage, Fates Warning, and Queensryche, where music and lyrics arise into a threnody and celebration of the human experience.
STRATOVARIUS
Episode
(Available from Noise, Apocalypse, Impulse)
This is the fifth album from this Finnish power metal quintet, and their finest effort to date. A glorious blend of silky sweet speed and striking melodies. In the past, the band has delivered some sensational tracks, but their albums on a whole have suffered from some objectively adequate but emotionally flat tracks. In addition, guitarist Timo Tolkki's songwriting seemed...uh, a bit too reminiscent of other songs frequently. (i.e., compare "030366" from The Fourth Dimension with Queensryche's "Screaming in Digital") This album, to my ears, has improved on both of those shortcomings. Singer Timo Koltipelto delivers a soaring performance on his second album with the band. "Father Time" blasts the album off with blistering speed tempered with clean precision, and an apocryphal chorus, "Will the Sun Rise?" follows with similar success at blending full throttle aggression with utterly entrancing themes. "Forever" offers the band slowing down, but not losing their majesty, and offering far more emotion than their previous ballads, while "Night Time Eclipse" shows the band running a tour de force in the epic style. The lyrics aren't as strong as some bands in this genre, but their general power/progressive metal themes are expressed quite adequately on this outing. If you haven't heard the band, and you're a fan of Helloween, Queensryche, Fates Warning, and Yngwie Malmsteen's heaviest, then this work is the essential starting point for the band. As clean and as sharp as a well polished sword blade.
GAMMA RAY
Silent Miracles & Alive ‘95
(Noise Mailorder, Apocalypse, Impulse, GMX,
CD Connection)
Kai Hansen, whose divine bloodlines cannot be denied by any true fans of the genre, returns with two offerings this year to keep his fans satisfied until the next full length studio work. Silent Miracles is a four song EP, which begins with "The Miracle", a reworked, relyriced, and balladized version of "Man on a Mission." On its own, it's quite a good track, though missing the transcendant glory of the original song. The EP also includes the album version of "Farewell", and a rerecorded version of "The Silence", another great ballad from the first Gamma Ray disc. "Dreamland" completes the EP, a delicate piano and vocal suite, quite pretty, and wonderful to listen to. Still, even at a fair price, this album really only includes 3 new recordings, and only 1 ½ new songs, so it's not as automatic a purchase as any normal Gamma Ray release would be.
Alive'95 features the band in concert, playing the best tracks from Land of the Free ("Rebellion in Dreamland", "Man on a Mission", the title track, and "Abyss of the Void"), along with the odd choice of "Space Eater" from the first album, "Tribute to the Past" and "Heal Me" from Insanity and Genius, "Future World" and "Ride the Sky" from Helloween, and nothing from Sigh No More. All in all, hard to quibble about such magnificent songs, but it would have been fun to hear some of the great up tempo numbers from Heading for Tomorrow, as well as from Sigh. Other than that, nothing but excellent performances from the band, as you'd expect, although Kai's vocals don't shine as much as they did in the studio. Hard to go wrong with an album like this, but at the same time, nothing new here we haven't heard before.
NOCTURNAL RITES
In a Time of Blood and Fire
(Available from Impulse)
More exultant ecstasy for fans of pure heavy metal, unabashed fantasy glory, and over the top spirit. This Scandinavian band is interesting. From the album cover, band name, and dark lyrics, you would swear this is some kind of black or death metal band, and apparently they had their roots in such music. But what appears on this debut disc is nothing but pure melodic glory, mixing together Helloween, Iron Maiden, Attack, Judas Priest, and Manowar in a sword of pure, sharp steel. The lyrics are delightful, hailing sharp steel and watching demons, marching to battle and soaring on the winds of war, and sailing the seas in Viking ships. The kind of subjects and images Manowar so gloriously presents. Unfortunately, they're pretty mawkishly written, but that's about the only failing on this album. What I love about this work is that, not only does this cutting metal have its wonderful hooks and mind-grabbing choruses, but they use tremendous vocal harmonies, somewhat ala Dokken, to make their songs sound even richer and fuller. "Sword of Steel" blasts off the album's march into war against the trends of the corporate music world, "Dragonisle" ends the conquest, and the rest in between is sheer majik. Again, this isn't my ultimate brand of metal, as it doesn't fully capture the emotional lyrics/music experience of works like the Virgin Steele, Blind Guardian, and old Fates Warning, but it is still excellent. Unfortunately, available only as an import, and a difficult one to find at that, but well worth the trouble if this kind of material stirs your blood.
CARCASS
Swansong
I was surprised with how much I enjoyed this band's farewell album. While I was impressed with the band's technical precision on the Heartwork album, and with the band's psychotic-med-student-with-a-thesaurus lyrics, I never got much into their music. Now, they've streamlined their approach, with tight, focused songs. The lyrics are lacking all their former vocabulary, but somehow they manage to be quite effective. The riffs have left behind the almost desultory complexity of the past for traditional metal riffs reminiscent of Savatage, Maiden, and Megadeth. The vocals still won't win any singing awards, but the songs come together as an incisive, catchy package. Rather like what Megadeth did on their last two albums, but it works much better for Carcass, in my opinion.
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