Having members who hail from Finland, Greece and Hungary must have made this last album a little on the challenging side to pull together given recent events. Hell, I can’t even go to Nottingham for the first business trip in two years without coming back infected with fucking COVID, so hats off to these guys for either managing to meet at all, or for really nailing down the art of remote writing and recording for this release. If the name sounds familiar to another well-known Finnish Power Metal band, then that’s probably because it’s the brainchild of former Battle Beast axeman Anton Kabanen, who founded this project in 2015. The similarity of the moniker is the only thing these two acts have in common musically however and I have to say I was curious to hear what this project sounded like, as when the third album comes around, it’s often make or break time.
First off musically you cannot get away from the in your face Synthwave keyboard sound that’s been adopted throughout. It’s using the kind of keyboard voices that if I was hearing it loud in a trendy pub in Cardiff I would be pulling a grimace and heading towards the exit, but add the pounding Power Metal drums and guitar and it really, and rather unexpectedly, works. Bizarrely, they also pull it off on the album closer They Don’t Care About Us, which puts the metal sounds completely in the background and still pulls it off because it’s so bloody anthemic and catchy - like everything else on the record. The songs have an incredible richness and energy, along with a shameless and liberal layering of reverb to give it that full, fat and in your face emotive feel and it’s the spectacularly utilising the kind of production values that tell me not only the band, but also those manning the desk really, really know their kung-fu.
Greek frontman Yannis Papadopoulos ensures that there’s a very different vocal delivery here, not least by the fact that he can switch vocal styles quite fluidly, from the very squeaky clean of the style that Power Metal has too many examples of already, to the more raw and gutturally screamed approach that reminds me of Ripper Owens on a good day. Oh, and everything in between and faultlessly to boot. I had to stop and check multiple times, because this really did sound more like it was a vocal ensemble super group project with half a dozen contributors, rather than just one man. It’s when you listen to him switch and slide styles mid-bar that his skill really hits you in the face as it’s hard to believe that this trick is not coming from a cross fade on a mixing desk, rather than from an exceptional human larynx. This leads to a hugely impressive range of approaches in the mix to the ears. When you add a couple of duet guest performances from an uncredited female guest, this really adds a dimension and richness contrasted even further with Papadopoulos effortlessly flowing between vocal styles within the same song. It is a simply incredible performance
Finally, the songs. For me the holy trinity for quality albums is that fine and delicate balance between the performances of the players and the ear and technical skills of whoever is producing and mixing, but these are nothing without the foundation of good songwriting - which this record has in abundance and plenty par excellence. Each and every track on here is of the calibre of the top moments in most other records from the genre all rolled into one fantastic and well-crafted package, only let down by one of the cheesiest and sexist album covers I’ve seen in a while, but I am not holding this against them on the grounds that I’ve finally got a contribution for my end of year ‘Worst Cover of the Year’ category when December comes around.
No top scores from me for months on end then two come along at once. 10/10
Toledo Steel - Heading For The Fire (Dissonance Productions/Cherry Red Records) [Matt Bladen]
Swashbuckling Southern England, metallers Toledo Steel return with their second full length. Packed to the brim with muscular, ballsy speed metal it's been released to coincide with their co-headline run of dates along with Seven Sisters (whose new album is reviewed next). Unlike their tour mates their sound is a bit more in the early punkier sound of the NWOBHM style, perhaps drawing on the re-release of their first to demos which came out as The First Strike Of Steel last year. The musical influences come from Accept and Iron Maiden and are shared with Enforcer and Amulet as they have before but there's also a few occult themes that lend themselves to Mercyful Fate.
Heading For The Fire sees the band varying their soundscapes a little, with some 80's-like speed metal fury on On The Loose, however they also have a more theatrical bent on Rituals By The Firelight as Tom Potter flexes his acoustic guitar prowess, though it's his razor sharp riffs and solos that most will focus on. Toledo Steel do like a riff, they also love chucking multiple riffs into songs, on the final offering, Last Rites the song itself runs over the 8 minute mark with numerous shifts in pace and timing led by the muscular rhythm section of drummer Matt Dobson and bassist Felix Dock, equally at home with proto-thrash as they are doom. The two musical styles that are increased on this record making for an overall darker tone than their previous albums.
This is more than just a retro fest though as Toledo Steel tap into what made the NWOBHM so popular as their music has a vitality, even a track such as Wicked Woman which takes more the 80's Ozzy shine than the denim and leather one, is delivered with fire and the belly and the sneering pipes of Rich Rutter. The British NWOBHM revival is still in full swing, with the best bands of the bunch still packing a punch. 8/10
Seven Sisters – Shadow Of A Falling Star Pt. 1 (Cherry Red Records) [Matt Bladen]
Consisting of Kyle McNeill (guitar/vocals), Graeme Farmer (guitar), Gaz Martin (bass) and Sam Christou (drums), London’s defenders of the steel, return with the follow up to 2016’s The Cauldron And The Cross. Recorded (in Burnley) between October and December 2020 (with the exception of the drums which were September in St Albans), Shadow Of A Falling Star Pt. 1 is I assume the first album in a forthcoming series of concept records. This explains why it begins with and has numerous cinematic flourishes throughout, creating a union between dramatic film scoring and classic British heavy metal. For example Horizon’s Eye, kicks off with a heavy metal gallop, but then has a middle section that swells with some atmospherics strings before a twin lead duel ramps up those classic sounds of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest.
The title track too features those oh so familiar twin lead harmonies and a fist pumping chorus. McNeil produced and mixed the record before Miro Rodenberg mastered it and for what is D.I.Y effort this record has a real scope to it sound wise, especially because the band are unafraid to up the prog level, matching the epic scale of their songwriting with the production. A track such as Wounds Of Design is an ideal showing of this, the longing ballad has muscle and bite to it. I’d compare Seven Sisters to bands such as Haunt and Cauldron, but they do also bring a lot of their own style, much of which comes from the unique vocals of McNeil, which I must admit I did have to warm too but once they settle with you couldn’t really imagine another vocalist singing these songs.
Shadow Of A Falling Star Pt. 1, looks to be the beginning of a theatrical classic heavy metal concept series, luckily it’s delivered by a band with a multifaceted style that is rooted in British metal history. No wonder then that they gather a lot of critical praise, have some more on me! 8/10
Michael Schinkel’s Eternal Flame – Gravitation (ROAR! Rock Of Angels Records) [Simon Black]
This act have been round in one form or another since 1986 (as Firefox), then Eternal Flame in the late 1990’s and noughties, with this version coming into being into 2018 with the last man standing from the original line up presumably, although it’s difficult to research as not a lot of info about those previous incarnations is out there. When you listen to the material on here though, it feels like it’s running the stylistic gamut of all of those intervening years, with a bit of mid-80’s AOR thrown in for good measure. To be fair, variety is definitely the spice of life here, and the fact that this will bounce between the shredding Neo-Classical, via straight-up and solid Melodic Metal before plumbing the USA Radio AOR Rock depths of the 80’s does at least keep you on your toes.
The other thing working strongly here is Shinkel’s performance. It is as you would expect from the artist brand name selected, fundamentally his solo project and he takes lead vocal and all guitar duties throughout. His voice is a solid and clean, with just enough edge to keep it raw, but not enough of a range for you to think about ditching the axe. His guitar work though is impressive and whereas when he’s focussing on singing, the guitar work stays mainly in the rhythm mode, but when he lets rip it’s generally worth the wait. So much so that I might be so bold as to suggest sharing some of those vocal duties. As well as allowing a bit more harmonic opportunity, this is an axe man worth listening to in his own right so perhaps something to bear in mind for the future.
Production wise there’s a nice full fat MeloMetal mix in there, although quite a tiny sound crops up on some of the early tracks in the drums department though, which leads me to suspect that the material was recorded over a lengthy period of time and that perhaps some sessions were capture at a later date and remotely thanks to the small matter of a global pandemic. The challenge I have with this is that the song-writing can be a bit hit and miss, with the faster and more Neo-Classical contributions generally standing head and shoulders above the rest, if only as the Melo/AOR stuff has plenty of marketplace content already, and it’s his technical flourishes that make the better tr#acks stand out in front. So, ditch the AOR, mix up the vocals a bit and the sky’s the limit. That said, those tracks where the best is allowed to shine make it worth giving this a spin end to end. 5/10
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