Before the review of the new Dragonforce platter hits, the power nerds at AMG wanted to nerd out with a ranking of their noddle-fests. We let them for some reason.
At Vance
Boguslaw Balcerak’s Crylord – Human Heredity Review
“Crylord as a word evokes the purest of sadboi feelings—songs of scoured hearts and drowned eyes. Rest assured, Boguslaw Balcerak’s Crylord will do anything for love, but not that. Human Heredity promises nothing more than a good time, despite the band moniker’s sorrowful suggestion. Rather, their light-hearted brand of arena-ready tunes threatens to grease your day with gooey power-infused cheese.” Dairy Malmsteen.
Masterplan – Novum Initium Review
“Originally conceived as a super group-ish side project for Helloween’s Uli Kusch and Roland Grapow, Masterplan soon became the duo’s main gig after their ignominious firing by those silly Germanic Pumpkin rockers. Although they planned to have the Lordly Russel Allen as the singer, they instead released two solid albums of melodic power metal helmed by the mighty Jorn Lande (yes AMG, we know you don’t think he’s that mighty). While Jorn left, then rejoined to record the less than stirring Time to Be King opus, it appears he left yet again, as Novum Initium features the talents of the well-travelled Rick Altzi (ex-At Vance, ex-Thunderstone, Herman Frank).” Are you sick of hearing about how awesome Jorn is? Apparently Masterplan is too, since they seem determined to beat him at his own hard rocking game. But can they bring as much heavy rock to the land as Jorn can?
Avantasia – The Mystery of Time Review
“You have to give Tobias Sammet his steely props. He doesn’t do things half-assed. Nope, he goes big, bold and lets the Metal Gods sort shit out. His Edguy material is plenty pretentious and overblown, but it can’t hold a magic candle to the sheer pretentious pomposity and bombast of his Avantasia project. Taking cues from Arjen Luccasen’s Ayreon outings, Sammet drags in every singer, guitarist and hanger-on he can and it seems he’s playing a metallic version of Pokemon (gotta catch em all). His last feat was the impressive double release of the Angel of Babylon and The Wicked Symphony albums (my fanboyish reviews of which, landed me a spot at AMG Industries, Ltd. for some reason), and I was very curious how he could top those massive platters of symphonic excess.” So how exactly does Mr. Sammet top his prior output? Steel Druhm is here to unravel the mysteries of time.
Herman Frank – Right in the Guts Review
Accept is on a roll lately, and here’s guitarist Herman Frank’s second solo outing. Not only is it Acceptable, it’s also pretty ballsy (to the wallsy).
