What are you listening to now? : The Guardians Edition

Kamelot - "The Black Halo" (2005)

Ben first introduced me to this wonderful American power metal record back in 2014 & it's since continued to develop an increasingly more significant hold on my emotions ever since. In fact, I don't think I can deny that it's my favourite power metal record after this revisit. The below review was completed at the time & it still rings very true today:

I'm generally not much of a fan of power metal but this album has really gotten under my skin. The production & performances are outstanding & vocalist Roy Khan is an amazing talent. "March Of Mephisto", "When The Lights Are Down", "The Haunting (Somewhere In Time)" & "The Black Halo" are all five star belters with loads of hooks that'll have you singing the choruses in your head for days afterwards. There are some cheesier moments but none of the weaker material has a major impact on my overall enjoyment levels as there aren't really any genuine duds here. There seems to be a strong Dream Theater influence in the band's sound & that can't be a bad thing as far as I'm concerned. It's not overly technical though. It's more in the atmosphere & melodic structure. At the end of the day there can be very little doubt that this is a high quality melodic metal record that could possibly be my new favourite power metal album.

For fans of Dream Theater, Avantasia & Sonata Arctica.

4/5

I'm inclined to agree, even though I really enjoyed Karma I've gone back to The Black Halo way more than that one. Kamelot always kind of took the backseat in my Symphonic Metal listening but as I go back with some hindsight their run from The Fourth Legacy to The Black Halo is pretty damn solid. 

I've tried to enjoy Power Metal over the years, but really struggle with it. And yet I LOVE this album!

So either this isn't actually Power Metal at all (or at least not straight Power Metal), or there have to be other bands / albums in the genre that I'll enjoy. Maybe someone with experience can advise?

Symphonic Metal is pretty much always going to be grounded in Power Metal just because that's generally how the riffs and drums are written for the metal band portion, unless you're going the Fleshgod or Septicflesh route. I think what may separate The Black Halo is that it retains a darkness that a lot of other Symphonic Metal albums don't have, since the orchestra makes them sound brighter and, to some, inherently cheesy. Even in their most sincere, Kamelot rarely stray into the generic, arena pleasing Power Metal tropes, even though they get close in songs like "Soul Society", "Moonlight", and "Serenade". They also don't technically have an operatic singer, even though Roy Khan does an incredible job nonetheless.

As for other bands...it's kind of tough, I've found that Symphonic Metal has a lot of lackluster releases and the 2000-2010 era gave us pretty much the best that the genre has to offer. Therion is the obvious choice and I'd say Secret of the Runes is more akin to the normal Symphonic Metal that Kamelot plays rather than their earlier, more Death Metal inspired stuff, but even that lacks a lot of the Power Metal tendencies you wanna get over. Even Epica is more rooted in a Melodic Death Metal style with their more aggressive drumming and harsh vocalist, so recommending Omega or The Holographic Principle still isn't really what you're looking for. Maybe Turilli/Lione Rhapsody with their 2019 Zero Gravity, but it might stray into the "too cheesy" territory since this is the classic guitarist/vocalist from Rhapsody we're talking about here? I've had success recommending Elvenking's Reader of the Runes - Divination, but that leans more towards Folk than Symphonic. It's a tough genre, Kamelot are one of the classics for a reason, there's just not a lot of other great examples out there that I've personally heard, especially since I've found I'm not a big fan of Stratovarius or Sonata Arctica.

Ben, I'd suggest that "The Black Halo" is definitely a power metal record. The strong use of symphonics & double-kick & the extensive focus on the melody place it pretty comfortably within that category in my opinion although it sounds much more like a European power metal record than it does a US one. Despite this, it has to be said that Kamelot keep their cheesier urges in check much more successfully & the anthemic vocal hooks hold a much greater level of sophistication than the vast majority of their power metal competition. The symphonics are used as an accompaniment in order to accentuate the song-writing rather than as an overthetop focal point too.

Although I've stated earlier that I think "The Black Halo" is the pinnacle of the power metal genre (at least in my experience), there are certainly other releases that you'll find enjoyment in. I'd highly recommend that you check out one of the recent The Guardians feature releases in Unleash The Archers' "Apex" from 2017. Xephyr submitted that one & Vinny & I really dug it which is saying something given our more extreme tendencies & general aversion to a lot of power metal. Interestingly though, Unleash The Archers used to be a melodeath band in their earlier days. Anyway... I'd like to challenge you to check that one out & report back to us. I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts.

Just checking out the new Iron Maiden album Senjutsu and it's a 2CD monster. Too early for any definitive opinion but one thing that immediately strikes the listener is how absolutely shit the production is. I can't believe the band are happy with that aspect. Maiden records should sound crisp and defined but this is muddy as hell which might be fine on a doom metal album but does Maiden no favours whatsoever. The biggest metal band in the world should not be hampered by production issues so maybe it's deliberate and is an attempt to cover something up. Further listens may reveal all.

Anyone else got round to this one yet as I'd really like to hear what you think?

Just checking out the new Iron Maiden album Senjutsu and it's a 2CD monster. Too early for any definitive opinion but one thing that immediately strikes the listener is how absolutely shit the production is. I can't believe the band are happy with that aspect. Maiden records should sound crisp and defined but this is muddy as hell which might be fine on a doom metal album but does Maiden no favours whatsoever. The biggest metal band in the world should not be hampered by production issues so maybe it's deliberate and is an attempt to cover something up. Further listens may reveal all.

Anyone else got round to this one yet as I'd really like to hear what you think?

I haven't bothered much with Maiden for years to be fair.  I got talked into trying Brave New World a few years back but that is the only "modern" Maiden output I have bothered with.  Curiosity moves me sometimes to think about trying Book of the Dead but I never quite get round to it.  Heard a completely different view on the production of the latest album yesterday from someone who loved it.  Horses for courses an all that...

I realized it has been a whole YEAR since I listened to one of my favorite albums of all time, so I'm reacquainting myself with this trusty old friend.

X Japan - "Art Of Life" E.P. (1993)

I'm not sure why I thought I needed to check out this underground classic of an E.P. from Japanese visual kei godfathers X Japan after not finding any enjoyment whatsoever in 1998's "Art Of Life Live" E.P. but I definitely got what I deserved here. "Art of Life" comprises of a single 29 minute epic that takes the listener on a melodic journey through various different movements & phases. It's certainly quite an ambitious & progressive undertaking from a conceptual view point however the base of the work sits within the symphonic power metal spectrum. There's no doubt that "Art of Life" is a beautifully composed & executed piece of art however it's also cheesy as all fuck which isn't terribly surprising for a Japanese power metal release. I particularly struggle with the symphonic component which culminates in a lengthy section where the piano becomes the main focal point. "Art of Life" is far from awful but I think it's fair to say that I had no business venturing anywhere near it. *quickly retreats into his 80's thrash comfort zone*

For fans of Galneryus, Versailles & Light Bringer.

2.5/5

Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden (1980)

Early 1980 I had just turned 18 and was mad into metal and heavy rock: Motörhead, Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Thin Lizzy, UFO and Budgie to name but a few. The trouble was, these bands were great, but they were old guys - some were even in their thirties! Kids my age were all playing in punk rock bands and, I had to admit, those punks sure played with some fire and energy. Then the music press started buzzing about this young bunch of cockney upstarts playing heavy metal called Iron Maiden and my ears pricked up in interest. Meanwhile, I picked up a copy of the newly released Metal for Muthas and it was pretty obvious to everyone that Maiden were the stand out act on that compilation (although Angel Witch's Baphomet is fucking brilliant too) and their two tracks, Wrathchild and Sanctuary, were snarly and aggressive calls to arms. Then came the single Running Free which was a bit different to the tracks on MfM and had a bounce to it that made headbanging a cinch!

Anyway, fast forward to spring and Maiden's self-titled debut hit our local Woolies and off I go to procure a copy. The first thing that confronted the prospective purchaser of said wax disc was the intense stare, rictus snarl and punk haircut of "Eddie the 'Ed" daring us to buy this album or be a pussy and stick with KISS or Foreigner! Needless to say, I was all in and handed over my quid seventy-five or whatever it was back then and headed off home with no shortage of anticipation to hear exactly what Chris Welch and Malcolm Dome were making all that fuss about in the music weeklies.

So, needle hits vinyl and <BAM> off we go with a degenerate tale of a flasher in the park called Prowler and those punks can kiss their arses goodbye. At last, a band of similar age to me playing with all the fire and venom and "fuck you if you dont like it" attitude the punks had co-opted, only this was fucking METAL!!! Second track Remember Tomorrow was a much slower and more subtle affair and this is where Maiden showed they had much more to offer than just punkish aggression and crass lyrics, Paul Di'Anno proved he had more than just a vicious, snarling vocal delivery and the twin guitars of Murray and Stratton unleashed hell with their incendiary guitar solos. At this point some of you younger fans may be saying "but Sanctuary is track 2" and on later CD versions it was, but that track was never on the original release. Remember Tomorrow is followed by the "hit" single Running Free and although I loved it at the time it has kind of paled for me in later years, but did serve as a great attention grabber for the band prior to the debut's release and, all things being relative, it is still a good song.

Next up and closing side one is one of the album's real highlights, Phantom of the Opera. Which already showed that Maiden had a bit more in their songwriting arsenal than the vast majority of bands sheltering under the NWOBHM umbrella, with Steve Harris in particular wanting to pursue a more epic and complex route than was the lot for most metal bands of the time and although Phantom is no Rime of the Ancient Mariner or even Hallowed Be Thy Name it is still a brilliant piece of nascent progressive heavy metal that doesn't trade complexity for heaviness, but keeps both intact and serves as one indicator as to why Maiden succeeded where so many others failed.

The instrumental Transylvania opens side two and allows the guitarists to showcase their skills with more of their soon-to-become trademark incendiary soloing, Harris' bass throbbing along underneath and Clive Burr setting the tempo with his fantastic, on-the-mark drumming skills. Transylvania subsides into the gentle intro to another somewhat atypical NWOBHM track, Strange World, where we actually get a kind of vulnerable, touchy-feely lyric and atmosphere that most metal acts would never even contemplate at that time. At this point Maiden ramp up the pace and aggression once more and are introduced to one of Harris' enduring lyrical characters, Charlotte the Harlot of 22 Acacia Avenue fame. Although the middle section and it's attempt at pathos is a little bit of a misstep for me, the track is otherwise heavy metal heaven. Rounding off pretty much as we started with a snotty-sounding, snarling piece of metal ass-kickery Iron Maiden firmly plant their flag in the ground.

Obviously the band later went on to dominate the world of metal, at least for a while after Di'Anno was replaced by Bruce, but I think it is testament to Di'Anno's performances and vocal style that the two albums he performed on are still massive fan favourites and, in truth, I have never heard tracks from the first two albums performed better by Bruce than they were by Paul, although, to be fair, he may well have conversely struggled with tracks that Bruce featured on. So, while Iron Maiden at the point of their first album were still on a journey rather than having arrived at  a destination, there can surely be no arguing that it was a trip well worth any fan tagging along on. To call the album the birth of a heavy metal legend is no hyperbole and is a defining moment in metal history.

I've been going over a couple of well-received releases from two of metal's big hitters that I have never been too sure about over the last day or two, just to try and tie down my feelings on them.

Judas Priest - Painkiller (1990)

Judas Priest were one of my favourite bands and produced a couple of my all-time top albums in Sad Wings of Destiny and Stained Class (with Sin After Sin and Killing Machine close behind). However, after the release of Killing Machine and the success of the single Take On the World something changed with Priest. To my mind at the time and an opinion I hold to this day, they sold out and selling units became more important than everything else. They took advantage of the upsurge of popularity of heavy metal here in the UK, since labelled the NWOBHM, by upping prices on concert tickets and merchandise, vitually doubling them on the Killing Machine tour compared to the prices on the Stained Class tour. Much as that irked me at the time that was as nothing compared to the commercialisation of their music signalled initialy by the British Steel album and it's focus on producing hit singles in the vein of US acts of the time in a blatant attempt to break into the American market. At this point I turned my back on Priest as I considered that they were taking the piss along with my hard-earned cash. My first wife bought the Screaming for Vengeance album but I didn't care much for it. Other than the title track and Electric Eye I thought it sucked to be honest and I didn't listen to another new Priest album for a very long time indeed.

Anyway, turning to Painkiller, I have always understood why it is so beloved of fans, following the execrable Turbo and Ram it Down pretty much anything half-decent would be an improvement and indeed it is, but I still maintain it is sub-par when compared to the band's earlier releases. Now I can hear your protests and you may as well save your breath because you will never convince me otherwise. "But Mike, Priest were barely even metal before Killing Machine" you might say, to which I will retort with the well thought-out counter-argument "bollocks!" There are some really good songs on Painkiller - Night Crawler, Between the Hammer and the Anvil and All Guns Blazing for example, but do any of these even touch, Sinner, Tyrant, Victim of Changes, Beyond the Realms of Death, Starbreaker, Exciter and more? Not even remotely in my book.

So the tracks are pretty good in the main, but a couple of things really kill my pig with Painkiller. Firstly it's the production which still retains a significant amount of that eighties sound beloved of AOR acts like Journey and Starship, particularly when there are keyboards involved, such as on the commercial-sounding Touch of Evil. The drums, whilst in themselves are pretty good, are too often made to sound like Phil Collins on his In the Air Tonight hit single. The other bugbear I have is Rob Halford's bizarre decision to sing a couple of tracks, including the opening title track which is otherwise brilliant, in a permanent falsetto when they would sound at least half as good again if he had just sung them normally.

Despite all this negativity, I do still rate Painkiller. The guitar work of Tipton and Downing is excellent with some great riffs and even better solos and even I must admit that the guitars benefit enormously from the production job. When Halford dispenses with the King Diamond-like enforced falsetto and sings naturally his voice still sounds great as well, so there is plenty to appreciate. I'm sorry though, but I just don't buy into the hype with Painkiller. As I said earlier, I get that it was an oasis in a sea of crap that was the Judas Priest of the mid-eighties onwards, but that is judging it against a pretty low-set bar. Personally, I rate it no higher than fifth best Priest album - it is solid, but it's not great. So sue me!

3.5/5

Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of A Seventh Son (1988)

The second of these re-examinations is well overdue. I bought SSOASS when it came out and still have the original vinyl, but it must be more than thirty years since I last played it. Well, I have got to admit that I have probably been a bit unkind to Seventh Son over the years as, listening to it now, it sounds like a much better album than I remember and of the two releases under this week's microscope it has fared the better of the two for sure. It is quite epic-sounding, as I suppose you come to expect with heavy metal concept albums. However, when compared to Maiden's later albums and particularly last year's Senjutsu, it is nothing like as overblown as when Steve Harris tries writing similar epic tracks nowadays and, in fact, back in '88 he managed to pack a lot into relatively short tracks which somehow feel longer than they actually are. There's some memorable, sing-along stuff here, Can I Play With Madness and The Evil That Men Do to name but two. The band are still on top form, a song like Infinite Dreams just gets better and better as it progresses, building and building with top-notch lead work and Bruce in fine form. I can't in all honesty give a valid reason as to why I was so down on SSOASS at the time, as listening to it now I can't for the life of me find too much wrong with it. I think the second half isn't quite as impressive as the first, but it is still decent and there's no reason why I shouldn't at least rate this as highly as previous album Somewhere in Time, an album I've always enjoyed immensely.

4/5

So this week's winner in Sonny's Battle of the Indecisive Releases is Iron Maiden by a good couple of lengths.

I find it really interesting to read your perspectives on these releases Sonny as they're very different from my own but are just as relevant. I think our upbringings & the period we grew up in play incredibly important roles in our long-term opinions on music & this is a prime example of that. Both of the records you've reviewed reside quite comfortably in my top four heavy metal records ever recorded & I don't doubt that this has a lot to do with when I discovered & fell in love with genuine metal music. While I was surrounded by hard rock & commercial metal from a very young age, it wasn't until I discovered Maiden, Priest, Sabbath & Motorhead in 1987/88 that I moved away from rock altogether in order to focus all of my time (& arguably my life) on proper metal music. It needs to be highlighted that Maiden's  "Somewhere In Time" & "Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son", Priest's "Turbo" & "Killing Machine", Motorhead's "No Remorse" & an Ozzy-era Sabbath compilation were the records that won me over & by the time 1988 was over I'd not only bathed in the strength of all of their back catalogues & branched out to the other senior heavy metal acts but had also discovered "...And Justice For All" & my extreme metal journey had begun. Given that pedigree, I've always held those records up on a pedestal & the two Maiden albums are still my favourite heavy metal albums of all time ("Somewhere In Time" having the slight edge). Interestingly, I've never understood the hatred for "Turbo" either & it's still in my top three Priest studio records today. It sounds very much of its time but I was at a very impressionable age & had commercial radio around me at all times in my family environment so was much more open to things like stadium rock anthems & 80's synthesizers than I'd imagine you would have been as a more educated & mature music fan. I completely flipped out when "Painkiller" was released in 1990 though as my taste had come a long way by that point. It's still arguably the most metal record I've ever heard & is the very epitome of the genre in my opinion. In fact, it's the only Priest record that resides in my Hall of Metal Glory. Anyway... I've gone off topic a bit. I think it was inevitable that when I went back & listened to Priest's mid-70's albums after having already indulged myself in their 80's material that I'd find them to sound a little tame in comparison as the tone was a lot more organic & less over the top than I was used to so & I still held up the more expansive, shredding & far less bluesy 80's model of virtuosic post-Eddie Van Halen guitar playing as the benchmark & probably always will as it's what I was raised on.

For the record, I agree with you that "Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son" is the superior record of the two but not by much.

Blind Guardian - "Imaginations From The Other Side" (1995)

I've never been much of a fan of European power metal but Blind Guardian are the exception.

4/5

BG is my favorite German band and my fave power metal act.

Blind Guardian will probably always be my favorite as well, they just have everything I love about the genre. They've been hit or miss past their 1990's run but have never been bad in my opinion, save for the Legacy of the Dark Lands experiment, but I'm actually really excited for The God Machine to come out in a few weeks. It sounds like it has some serious potential for a band that's almost going into their 35th year.

I've been doing some necessary catchup this week after binging Fellowship's debut album for a review and checking out Falconer's debut and follow-up, since I enjoyed their final album From a Dying Ember a ton. It's crazy how Falconer found their signature sound right off the rip and how well put together it all is. Chapters From A Vale Forlorn is a bit more varied and showcases their unique vocals in a more pronounced way, but the debut is still great in its straightforward approach. If anything, Chapters... was a pleasant surprise since Falconer's debut is the album that gets most of the attention, it seems. I'd have to go back to From a Dying Ember again but it still might remain my favorite since I think it does the best job of harnessing all of Falconer's different aspects and leans into the medieval fantasy elements just a bit more. 

Falconer - 4/5

Chapters From a Vale Forlorn - 4/5

It's been a while since I've heard Falconer, but they are definitely responsible for the some of best power metal that Sweden has to offer.  I favor Among Beggars and Thieves and Black Moon Rising for how varied they can get.  But on that subject, I'll always be at least a little pissed that Lost Horizon only had two albums.

Cool Feet - "Burning Desire" (1976)

I saw this record pop up quite often while researching the early metal scene during my Metal Academy podcast preparations back in the mid-2010’s & it seems to be quite highly regarded but I can’t say that I’ve ever gotten around to checking out Luxembourg four-piece Cool Feet before now. This 1976 debut album goes for ridiculous money on the second-hand vinyl market these days but if my experience tells me anything it’s that value doesn’t necessarily equate to quality. I couldn’t imagine that “Burning Desire” was likely to break any records in regard to intensity so a long drive with the kids over the weekend seemed like the perfect opportunity to see what this obscure proto-metal outfit had to offer before heading off in a much poppier direction in the early 1990’s.

I think it’s fair to say that the poor production & mastering jobs are a definite weakness for “Burning Desire” as the guitars aren’t prominent enough & the levels of the individual tracks differ from each other. This doesn’t prevent the stronger material from making the desired impact though & I find the heavier tracks to all be very enjoyable, particularly the metallic “The Man From Marakesh” & closing hard rocker “Alone In Your Cage” which are both very solid tracks in their own right. There are really only two tracks of the eight included that I regard as fitting the criteria for metal classification though (i.e. "The Man From Marakesh" & opening title track) &, as with so many 70’s proto-metal releases, I find it to be a significant stretch to claim this album as an early metal record.

It sounds to me like Cool Feet were still trying to find their sound with “Burning Desire” as it jumps around sporadically in regard to feel & accessibility. A couple of the more traditional bluesy hard rock numbers sound pretty uneventful when placed around the more melodically expansive metal tunes but the real failing of this record comes with the two awful attempts at commercialism that reside on the B side. Cool Feet are often claimed to be Scorpions disciples & “The Fool” provides a clear indication of that & had me instantly reaching for my plagiarism card given just how close it is to the German hard rock legends' seminal “He’s A Woman – She’s A Man”. Strangely it took a day or so before I realized that “Burning Desire” was actually released a full two years before Scorpions’ “Taken By Force” album which had me wondering whether I had it completely ass about. “The Fool” is a terrible track so I find it hard to believe that Scorpions would have wanted to copy it. Perhaps "Shes A Woman - He's A Man" was an old Scorpions song that didn’t hit an album until later on? I’m not sure but one of the two bands is guilty. The other major failure is even worse though with “Now I Know I’m Free” seeing the entire tracklisting falling on its ass. Thankfully Cool Feet were able to turn things around with a very strong ending to the album.

There are some high quality moments to be found on “Burning Desire” & I found a good half of the tracklisting to be very enjoyable. Front man Don Cardwell has a great hard rock voice & leads the band with confidence during the heavier material but unfortunately the band’s attempts at pop stardom & the generic nature of a couple of the bluesier rock tunes combine with a thin production job to derail Cool Feet’s chances of rock immortality. This is very much the sort of album where you’d be best served by adding the highlight tracks to your Spotify playlist & turfing the remainder.

For fans of Sir Lord Baltimore, Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell & Scorpions.

3/5

Bow Wow - "Signal Fire" (1977)

A seminal record in the Japanese metal scene. It's just not very good though & it certainly shouldn't qualify as metal either in my opinion. Of the ten tracks there's only two that I'd consider as being metal. The occasional Black Sabbath or Judas Priest style riff pops up here & there & the vocals do try for their best Rob Halford impersonation at times too but the rest is a fairly light-weight take on 70's hard rock. The musicianship is very good but the vocals & song-writing aren't really up to it to be honest.

For fans of Deep Purple, Budgie & Loudness.

3/5

Obús - "Prepárate" (1981)

The debut album from this Madrid-based outfit is one of the earlier metal releases to come out of Spain. Zarpa's 1978 debut album "Los cuatro jinetes del Apocalipsis" is the earliest that I'm aware of but I'd argue that "Prepárate" may have come in second (at least of the reasonably noteworthy releases out there) as I don't regard Barón Rojo's "Larga vida al rock and roll" album from earlier in 1981 to be anything more than hard rock whereas "Prepárate" has a foot in both the hard rock & heavy metal camps. Unfortunately it suffers from the same affliction as Barón Rojo's first couple of records though as I struggle with clean Spanish language vocals in my metal for some reason, especially when there's not a lot of talent behind them as we see here. The instrumentation is reasonably well done throughout & there are a few tracks that I quite enjoy (i.e. when the choruses don't kill off their chances) but none of them will see me rushing back for return visits. It's interesting that we may even have an early speed metal track on our hands here in "Pesadilla nuclear" although it's not a very good one it has to be said. At the end of the day "Prepárate" is another decent Spanish rock/metal record with solid (if uninspired) instrumental performances & fairly amateurish vocals. I'd take it over the first two Barón Rojo albums though if pushed.

For fans of Barón Rojo, Ángeles del Infierno & Saxon.

3/5

Heavy Metal Army - "Heavy Metal Army 1" (1981)

Another early Japanese metal release. This one a one-off album from an obscure band from Okinawa that were never heard of again. I haven't had much time for the other early Japanese releases I've heard & this one isn't much better but I'd hazard to suggest that it was probably the best metal-related release to come out of the country to the time. Heavy Metal Army's sound sits somewhere between heavy metal & hard rock & the vocals flip-flop between English & Japanese. The guitar solos of Shinki Sugama are excellent & are a real strength but the most noteworthy component of the Heavy Metal Army sound is the strong use of keyboards which draws comparisons with Deep Purple & Rainbow when it's done well but when it's not it tends to date the material pretty badly.

The tracklisting is quite varied, as is the quality level as this is a highly inconsistent record. It's strange though that they've elected to start the album with the three weakest tracks which got me offside from the get-go. For this reason it took me a couple of listens to get myself into a headspace to appreciate the rest of the album but once I did I found some pretty interesting stuff with the stripped-back progressive rock closer "Bird of Destiny" being the clear highlight. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to save "Heavy Metal Army 1" from obscurity & I can't see myself returning to it even though it definitely has its moments.

For fans of Deep Purple, Scorpions & Rainbow.

3/5

Jag Panzer - The Fourth Judgement (1997)

I enjoyed Jag Panzer's debut, Ample Destruction, but it's follow-up, Dissident Alliance, seems to have been universally panned, so I went into The Fourth Judgement unsure what to expect. What I got was a fairly mundane USPM album. There are some decent riffs on here, hell a couple are even genuinely killer and the solos aren't too shoddy either, but everything else screams mediocrity. I don't like the vocals much. Sure, there are plenty of power metal singers I dislike more, but Harry Conklin's style, whilst not grating as much as some, does very little for me either. The production robs the rhythm section of any authority and contributes heavily to the mundanity of the release as a whole.

The Fourth Judgement is a release that feels like it lacks any passion, aggression or exhilharation that is the cornerstone of heavy and power metal. There isn't even very much pomp and circumstance, that I'm not personally a big fan of, but which would at least lend it some fist-pumping energy. A damp squib for me overall, to be honest, but the guitar work, particularly a few of the riffs, is good enough to allow me to bump it up to a more respectable score.

3/5

Running Wild - Blazon Stone (1991)

My only previous experience of Running Wild was their 1987 album "Under Jolly Roger" which I didn't care for much at all. I am pleasantly surprised, however, at just how much I am enjoying Blazon Stone. It doesn't at all pander to the worst excesses of power metal and contains some terrific riffs without too much by way of vocal overkill or suffocating layers of keyboards and ends up being a very enjoyable, high octane heavy metal album. Ahoy there my hearties, permission to come aboard!!

4/5

Interesting. I’ve never liked any of the Running Wild releases I’ve investigated previously but I have “Blazen Stone” on my playlist for the coming weeks so we’ll see how I go.

I think that very occasionally it's a case of right time, right place. I've had a bit of a bummer of a week this week so, for some reason, Blazon Stone was exactly what I wanted (or needed) to hear today - without even knowing it!!

I love it when I'm checking out an album I am expecting to dislike and I find myself really enjoying it - it's almost as satisfying as finding a stone cold classic.