Review by Daniel for Fifth Angel - Fifth Angel (1986)

Underground US power metal five-piece Fifth Angel have been on my radar for many years however, despite being well across most of the other major contributors to the movement, I've somehow managed to let them slip past me to date. But given the generally positive reports on the Seattle band’s self-titled Shrapnel Records debut album, I thought I’d take the opportunity to nominate it for The Guardians feature status so as to bring it to everyone’s attention & give it a chance to prove to me that Fifth Angel’s reputation is based on merit.

Let’s put it out there right from the beginning that “Fifth Angel” sounds unapologetically of its time with all of the common traits of any mid-80’s heavy metal album being present & accounted for but I don’t think that should be taken as a negative. The record is well produced with the song-writing being given every chance to impress while the musicianship is of a high standard too. Lead guitarist James Byrd is of particular note as his solos represent some of the high points of the release & it doesn’t surprise me that he’s since gone on to a solo career as a neoclassical shredder because his chops are clear for all to see. Front man Ted Pilot possesses a pure & melodic tone that’s pleasant enough but doesn’t ever threaten to compete with the elite heavy metal vocalists while I also noticed the presence of drummer Ken Mary who is somewhat of a rock/metal journeyman given that he’s spent time with everyone from Accept, Alice Cooper, Chastain, House of Lords & Impellitteri. In fact, he’s the current drummer for popular Phoenix thrash metallers Flotsam & Jetsam which is a little surprising. Ken doesn’t try to pull off anything terribly special here but he certainly lays down a solid basis for the other band members to build on.

Fifth Angel tackle their melodic metal sound from a few different angles across the nine tracks. Their sound is rooted in classic heavy metal with some songs being comparable to the hard rock-driven crunch of Dio (see “Shout It Out” for example) & others taking a more modern & aggressive US power metal direction similar to Crimson Glory, early Queensryche (perhaps not surprisingly given they both hail from the same town) or Lizzy Borden. There are a few tracks that verge on the European variety of power metal too with “Call Out The Warning” being the most fully realised but I feel that this is much more of a traditional heavy metal record than it is a power metal one with my preferences unsurprisingly being angled towards the heavy metal material over the power metal-ish stuff.

As with all heavy metal releases, it’s the vocal hooks & song-writing that play the biggest part in deciding on how much you buy into the artist’s vision & that’s a key point to discuss as I think it’s an issue here. While all of the bands I referenced above consistently create engaging, memorable songs that have you singing along with them in your head for days afterwards, I don’t think I can say that same for Fifth Angel. “Shout It Out”, “The Night” (my personal favourite) & closer “Fade To Flames” are all pretty cool tracks but I can’t say that any of them are anything more than pleasant while the remainder of the album just sounds pretty flat to my ears, even despite the band’s obvious metal credentials. I can see why people enjoy a record like this one but I think I need a little more to keep me entertained so I can’t see myself returning to “Fifth Angel” in the future.