REVIEWS ARCHIVE - Z |
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ZANDELLE
"Vengeance Rising" (LMP / SPV - provided by Target) - 3½ out of 5 points - |
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I have always liked US true metallers Zandelle because of their way of playing power metal separates them from the mass. They consist of a pack of great musicians that has a lot of surprises and technical compositions, without losing that essential catchiness and memorable moments. Zandelle is also one of the very few bands who manage to create an epic sound without the use of keyboards, which is something I admire quite much in a band. The singer however is the weakest link, and while he creates some awesome vocal melodies his voice just isn't good. I am sorry to say this, but just listen to the classic "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH" scream in the beginning of "Prophecy" and the vocals in the beginning of the final part of the Beowulf Trilogy "Ancient Tale of Valor". His voice works really well when he sings in the lower tones, but when he high pitches it can be directly funny to listen to. The production is also a drag in the grade, since I don't find to be satisfying at all, but I find that to be a problem with many Limp releases. Overall this is a really good power metal release which makes use of all the clichés there are in power metal (read dragons, swords, speedy riffs, sing-a-long-choruses, high pitched screams, you get the point), but it is so well played. So if you want technical, surprising, catchy and epic power metal hymns then Zandelles latest effort should be on your "to get" list.
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Mads
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| ** DOUBLE REVIEW FEATURE ** | ||
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ZANDELLE
"Vengeance Rising" (LMP / SPV - provided by Target) - 2 out of 5 points - |
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Zandelle still lives in the 80's, that's for sure. This band sound and look so eighties that it's almost laughable. But, the fact is that if done well, the 80's style of American heavy metal still could hold some relevance, and that's why I'm willing to give Zandelle a chance. I admit it, I'm a big fan of that style myself; bands such as Malice, Warlord, Omen, Helstar, Warrior etc all rank high in my book, and considering Zandelle sounds like a mixture of these there should be something relevant to find here, right? Well not really - although Zandelle obviously have their style down to a 100%, then the songwriting lacks a bit to desire and while George Tsalikis have the attitude in place, his high-pitch screams become rather annoying (not to mention out-of-tune). Zandelle are on the right path, but they need better songs and a better singer to amount to more than just a cult-act.
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Claus
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ZED YAGO "From The Twilight Zone" (Steamhammer / SPV - provided by Nordic Metal) - 3½ out of 5 points - |
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A quite unknown band from the end of the 80'ties with powerful female vocals by Jutta Weinhold, with gypsy or pirate attitude - a style of her own that makes Zed Yago sound quite special. Overall the sound is pretty German like Accept "balls to the wall", but in their good tracks (especially Pilgrims Choir) they blend in almost Queen like symphonic style. The double CD has tracks from the Demo, "From Over Yonder", "Pilgrimage", "Live London", "Live in Munich" and " Velvet Viper". A bit more consistent song writing could have sent them from obscurity to classic.
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Erik
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ZENO
"Runway To The Gods" (MTM Music - provided by Zink) - 4½ out of 5 points - |
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For a band (or should I say project?) that's been running for 20 years, ZENO hasn't really been overflowing the market with releases … since the "Zeno" debut in 1986, there's actually only been 3 other releases ("Zenology" 1994, "Listen To The Light" 1998 and "Zenology II" 2005) before this new disc, "Runway To The Gods". I remember the debut as a very well-done hard rock disc with great guitar playing and strong melodies, but to be honest I've not listened to the other three releases until half a year ago, when I came about the band again. Zeno is, as most hard rock fanatics probably know, based around guitarst/composer Zeno Roth, who is the brother of Uli Jon Roth (yup, the ex-Scorpions, now solo-guitarist). As "Runway to The Gods" prove, Zeno is just not an amazing guitarist (this guy have the thing that very few guitarists today possess: "emotion"), but also an incredible songwriter. The whole album consists of one totally brilliant tune after each other - with my favorites being "Do You Feel The Time", "Fanfares Of Love" and "Runway To The Gods". Besides Zeno Roth (who plays all instruments, and sings lead vocals on "Do You Feel The Time", the album also features Michael Bormann from Jaded Heart, who perfectly fits the music of Zeno with his soft-toned hard rock voice. Musically Zeno can be found in the same vein as Ten, Whitesnake, Harem Scarem or Fair Warning; meaning very melodic songs (not pure AOR mind you…), with a good deal of 80's hard rock influences, some symphonic keyboard parts, and of course all the guitar-hero antics that goes along with the territory and enhances the qualities of the songs. This is a beautiful album and with the right push from MTM this should do very well with all the hard rock'ers around Europe. I'm hooked!
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Claus
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ZION
"Zion" (Frontiers Records - provided by Zink) - 2 out of 5 points - |
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Oh boy, is this supposed to be good? In the press release for the album, there's a lot of focus on Freddy Curci being one of the best vocalists in Rock History, having a beautiful smooth voice … Ehmmm, well I don't like his voice at all!!! There you go … I'm already now slamming the main-sales point of this disc, ain't I? Ok, it's not "horrible", but he seems to be straining a lot, and often his pitch is a bit off - and that is simply not good enough in today's music business where you have the chance to fix such things in the mixing process. Musically Zion is quite standard AOR / melodic hard rock - not too far away from Freddy's old band Alias, or perhaps a bit of Foreigner/Bad English/Hardline style here and there. Overall this album is forgettable …
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Claus
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