The three-person unit is back with another grand dose of unbound power.
Founding member Peter "Peavy" Wagner with his characteristic raw vocals and deep bass playing, Russian super guitarist
Victor Smolski and the American power drummer Mike Terrana offer "right in your face" Power Metal on a high technical level.
Ingenious jamming guitar vibes is a
Victor Smolski trademark and it doesn't take more than around a minute of
All I Want before we get a taste of the excellent guitar playing that takes up a very important part of the whole album. One of my favourite
Rage tracks with its "bigger than everything" chorus and positive vibe, credit to Peavy's bombastic vocals.
Down is an uncompromising Metal smasher with lots of cool twists and turns; the spellbinding guitar solo is simply out of this world.
I really like the symphonic background in
Dies Irae, adding lots of depth to the track, the chorus is on the other hand a bit too effusive for my taste. Gigantic bass streams and progressive sounding guitar adventures are other successful elements.
With such a great band possessing fantastic song writing skills I'm a bit surprised to find a rather standard cut like
World Of Pain on this album. Sure it's energetic but it doesn't offer elements that makes it come together as a successful cut, it misses a clearer direction and some good ideas.
The short relaxing instrumental
Shadows fits well into the flow and with
Living My Dream we get treated with a varied and groovy song. Inventive guitar leads, a fantastic refrain and a large portion of wonderful dynamic drumming are some really enjoyable ingredients.
Seven Deadly Sins opens with all guns blazing and keeps developing into one of the heaviest songs on the album, fast, furious and forceful. Lots of intense guitar riffs and a pounding bass fundament.
The albums title track is 7-minute instrumental show off, and I mean that in a good way. Experimental keys, smart piano tones, impressive drumming, clever acoustics and thrilling guitar spots make this a grand ending track, having a very progressive profile.
Unfortunately I think that the album in general is a bit too chorus reliant, I'm missing more odd structures and longer epics like they used to make in past days.
The more symphonic elements enter the picture occasionally, I would have liked even more of it to enhance some of the moods.
On the lyric level we are dealing with a world gone insane from greed and selfishness, abusing religion and very personal stuff like realising your dreams, I would describe them as interesting and refreshingly direct in style.
The album has a clear sound and great deal of depth, hitting hard just like the musical content. I would say that this output is more straight-ahead and uncomplicated than some of its predecessors, having a quite refreshing hard vibe.
The musicians display many great varied elements, fast and technical guitar parts, detailed and highly energised drumming and a very solid bass performance; that extra cool musical delivery really does make a big difference.
Compact, solid and well executed.
Written by
Tommy Wednesday, January 19, 2005
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