2007-03-08
I was a fan of Evil Masquerade's take on neo-classical power metal since their debut album – "Welcome To The Show" was released back in 2004. The main strength behind that band was the impressive guitar playing and writing ability of main man Henrik Flyman. The band's second release – "Theatrical Madness", was a worthy successor, but the band's third release sees a serious change within it, and at first I was unsure if that will better, or hurt the band.
Happily, my worries were unfounded. Though the lineup is almost completely changed, with only Flyman and drummer Dennis Buhl remaining from the original group, the new lineup is more than up to the task - a new bassist called Thor Jeppesen, and mainly, one heck of a vocalist in the form of
Firewind's Apollo Papathanasio, one of the best melodic vocalists active in the Europian metal scene these days.
The album starts out with the energetic neo-classical title track, continuing where the debut's title track left off, but benefiting from an extremely powerful performance by Apollo, while Flyman flies off with some truly staggering guitar playing, his usual neo-classical touch well in place. The first single off the album – "Black Ravens Cry" is slower, almost progressive, with one of the best choruses the band ever had, catchy and dramatic. The mid-section guitar-keyboard combat is awesome as well.
"Descended From The Grave" features more of the great neo-classical tunes that the band does so well, with some added oriental touches; One thing about the vocals here, they reminded me of
Ronnie James Dio's, and so did the guitar riffs in there. I have to give it to the rhythm section, Buhl's drumming remains impressive as hell; his cymbal work is staggering, and as evident in the oriental mid-pieces here. The new bassist is no slouch as well. The song's mid solo section is a prime example of what makes this band so great, sophisticated, and melodic - this has it all. The same mid-pace, oriental feel is also evident in the next track, "Far Away", coming off as a Dio solo-album area track.
The keyboards are as good as always, with prime guests in the form of uber-keyboardist Richard Anderson and ex-Rainbow and
Malmsteen keyboardist David Rosenthal. You just need to listen to the mid-section keyboard trade-off in "Far Away". One of my favorites here is "The Dark Minstrel Plays", a very imaginative, almost cabaret-like tune; Apollo's delivery is great, with an extremely well done chorus and Flyman truly flying off the handle with one impressive lead in the middle.
"Bring On The World" goes further into neo-classical prog realms, with some of the band's most "out there" tunes this far, the great chorus is as powerful as power metal gets. The mid-section oriental tinged bit is great fun as well. The last track is a kind of a bombastic ballad that reminded me of the same Queen influences that I heard in the band's debut effort.
I'll just surmise and say that this band just gets better and better, they have a solid base with their guitarist, Flyman, who can write as hell, but this time he brought in some serious outside talent as well, and that makes this album into probably the best melodic metal album for 2006.
Alon Miasnikov