Falconer
	Rating: 85/100 Reviewed by: Jørgen Ditlev, April '05 Label: Metal Blade Records Style: Melodic Power Metal
Grime vs. Grandeur

Fourth album from Sweden ’s Falconer and yet again with a change in the lineup New bass player is Magnus Linhardt and new guitar player is Jimmy Hedlund, the last bass and guitar players Anders & Peder Johansson left the band because they had too far to the rehearsal room (Hmm don’t they have cars in Sweden ?).

Before the last album “The Sceptre Of Deception” there was a major change in the lineup, the charismatic singer Mathias Blad left the band and former Destiny singer Kristoffer Göbel entered, this upset a lot of the Falconer fans as they thought that Mathias Blad’s voice was the trademark of Falconer. I always thought that these Falconer fans took it a little bit too far, sure “The Sceptre Of Deception” is a confusing CD and it is not as strong as the first two albums, but Kristoffer Göbel’s performance on the album kicks serious ass.

Well back to the new CD “Grime vs. Grandeur” sounds a lot like the first two albums, especially tracks like “Emotional Skies”, “Purgatory Time” & “Child Of The Wild”. But there are also some traditional power metal tracks, stuff like “The Assailant”, which I think is because Kristoffer Göbel contributed with 25% of the songwriting.

All in all we got a great power metal CD with a great artwork & a kick ass production, once again produced by Andy LaRocque in the Los Angered Studio. The limited edition digipack comes with a bonus track “Wake Up”, so go out and buy this one now.

Recommended tracks: “Purgatory Time” & “Humanity Overdose”