ANGELS OF THE APOCALYPSE

A very good surprise from the USA. I didn´t know this band until recently when I saw some reviews here on PAand decided to look for this CD with vocals from the much praised Lisa Bouchelle. Another interesting feature is swedish keyboards legend Jens Johansson (Stratovarius and Ingwie Malmsteen) joining the fold. I was quite struck by their mix of 70´s heavy prog, 90´s melodic power metal and some synphonic overtones. The result is quite charming and convincing.

The highlight is of course Bouchelle´s excellent vocals: strong, dramatic and very good. She has some pipes! She reminds me sometimes of another great american female singer, Lana Lane, but she has a kind of 70´s bluesy feeling too, like Babe Ruth´s Janita Haan. Guitar parts are also very well done and with a good dose of personality that set them apart from so many other power metal bands: Bill Berends is quite melodic and adds some fusion parts to the mix. Johansson´s typical speed of light synth solos are present as expected, but his overall perfomance here is more varied and interesting here than on most Stratovarius CDs.

All tracks are of very good quality. There are no fillers and the instrumental With Dignity And Grace is a good showcase of their tightness and tremendous technique. If I had to chose only one song as a highlight I´d pick up the powerful Million Miles Away, just gorgeous! Of course, for most progheads, the greatest moment on Angels Of The Apocallypse is their version for ELP´s Endless Enigma. Mastermind did a fantastic job here, as their style are so apart from each other: the result is, at the same time, respectful to the original version and also giving the song a different approach, with wonderful guitar parts absent from the ELP´s track. Production is also top notch.

Another fine piece of prog music I found here on PA. If you like the aforementioned styles go for it!

Rating: four strong stars.