Are you in for some traditional heavy metal in the vein of Judas Priest, Iron
Maiden and Vicious Rumors, then this third album by Lord Volture just might be
something for you. On this third album there is a different singer from the
second release (with Sean Peck), this time David Marcelis (Methusalem,
Conquestador) takes care of the vocals. He does a good job, especially in the
more higher regions. Another strong point is the guitar parts by the duo
Paul Marcelis and Leon Hermans, especially the guitar soli on the album are very
nice and impressive.
There are songs leaning towards power metal like the opening tracks "Where the
Enemy Sleep" and "Taklaman", but also real old school sounding heavy metal songs
of which "The Pugilist" is the best example. That track sounds like early
Mercyful Fate with a Saxon sauce and an Iron Maiden dip. That there is enough
variation shows the track "My Sworn Enemy", which has influences from
the Judas Priest
'Painkiller' era. If you need a more nowadays comparison, I could mention
Cage. "Badajoz" is yet another song with rather strong Mercyful Fate influences,
but they never exaggerate. On earlier albums they already had guests like Sean
Peck and Jeff Waters, on this album they have invited Chris Poland (ex-Megadeth)
to play along. The album was produced in the Split Second Sound Studio,
Amsterdam with Bart Hennephof (Textures) and Yuma van Eekelen (Pestilence) behind the
buttons. To put the dots on the I's the album was mixed and mastered by Stephen
van Haestregt (Within Temptation, Ambeon). They did a good job because the album
sounds heavy, has the old school feeling, but still sounds modern.
For insiders it will not be a surprise that Iron Maiden and Mercyful Fate
influences can be heard, because some members are also known from the cover
bands Up the Irons and Mercyful Fake. I'm glad that this Dutch band develops and
improves with every album; the song-writing gets stronger every time.
A job well done and an ideal album for the real heavy metal fan that is also
into Cage, Primal Fear, Hammerfall, Wolf and of course the old school names I
already mentioned.
Strongest track: "Badajoz (1812)", but also "Where the Enemy
Sleep", "The Pugulist" and "My Sworn Enemy" are strongly recommended.
