2005-08-03
Rob rock has had quite an illustrious career in the metal genre, starting way back in 86' with the M.A.R.S Project, and continuing with Warrior, a fruitful relationship with Uber-guitarist Impellittery, and then a string of solid solo releases.
This time he is coupled with three past members of Christian power metal band, Narnia, guitarist Carl Johan Grimmark being the cherry on top, a wildly talented guitarist that delivers a stellar performance on this album.
The main fault with this album, to my taste, is it's over Christian tendency, while working with another deeply Christian musician, Impellittery, the Christian belief facet was evident, yet not overtly so, while in this album, Rock's beliefs get center stage with tracks such as "Calling All Angles" and "Lion Of Judah".
That makes the album a mirror image of extreme black metal bands, replacing Satanism with extreme Christian views, something which might deter the less religious fans; it definitely rang an unpleasant note with me.
There's no faulting Rock's voice, he is certainly one of the strongest power metal vocalists in existence, the musical direction taken by the band is much heavier then anything done in past albums, much closer to melodic thrash then simple power metal, with rock's voice and some keyboards the only elements keeping the album from being all-in-all thrash.
There's the usual unnecessary ballad, prefect for the forward button, but apart from it, it's heavy and aggressive all the way.
The album is not a masterpiece, some songs are, such as the title sing and songs such as Slayer Of Souls, but there are also some that lost my interest at times, making this a very good metal album, but not a truly great one.
Alon Miasnikov
