Reviews list for Scanner - Hypertrace (1988)

I've heard this album twice and both times I had the same opinion: Scanner's debut stands out from the rest of the power metal world for truly mastering the sci-fi vibe without needing too many electronic sound effects.  Lyrically, the album hits the cyberpunk vibe right in the red dot, from the laser guns to the politics to the mythos.  "Warp 7" sounds like the opening to a real sci-fi movie from the 80's, and all of the songs follow in that vein just fine, switching from simple jams to freedom anthems in the vein of Gamma Ray.  If I had to fault the album for anything, it's that the album really isn't as heavy as other speed-power metal hybrid acts like early Helloween or Running Wild, so there's a faint feeling of simply just following in a scene for the sake of easy fame.  The production doesn't do any favors for the drummer, and as a result the guitarists and the vocalist have to fill the void.  Otherwise, this album is perfectly fine and should be checked out by any power metal fan.

There are a couple metal albums that got the sci-fi label in the 80’s simply for having one song about space (or god forbid, featuring a cyborg on the cover), but Scanner’s Hypertrace is the first true sci-fi metal album. Every song here follows the theme, and the music is melodic and speedy, very fitting for laser space battles. The sci-fi theme does give them a bit of a niche, but even that aside, the music here is fantastic, each song delivering great riffs and infectious choruses. Despite the fun fantasy nature of it, there are themes of revenge, hatred, and extermination throughout that can actually be taken rather seriously.

Consistency is key here, as not only is everything laden with sci-fi themes, but each song is great, despite varying enough in sound, speed and structure to keep everything from sounding too samey. A very well-done debut.