A Pedestrian Effort From Yet Another German Power Metal Band
Written: Mar 25 '07
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Not the worst power metal album ever
Cons: Nowhere close to the best power metal album ever
The Bottom Line: You're better off sticking with Helloween or Gamma Ray, but if you're tired of them or want a fix of some new powermetal you could always give Metalium a shot.
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| Mordred's Full Review: As One-Chapter 4 by Metalium |
For those who haven't heard of them, and that's probably everybody, Metalium is a German band that describes themselves as Progressive Power Metal. They released their debut album, Millenium Metal in 1999 with the help of Savatage guitarist Chris Caffrey and ex-Yngwie drummer Mike Terrana. Apparently those two were just onboard to help get the band some recognition, as they were never actually part of the band. Fast forward to 2004 and the band is releasing their 4th album, As One.
Metalium is a power metal band that embraces that plays to the cheesier side of the metal community. All four of their albums tell the continuous story (As One is subtitled "chapter four") of "The Metalian" who is basically the embodiment of pure metal. I assume he goes about slaughtering all who oppose true metal and saving humanity from ultimate destruction. As One doesn't really focus on the Metalian so much as his female counterpart the Metaliana. Through the album she encounters various female characters from mythology such as Medusa, Pandora, Athena and presumably defeats them. Eventually she hooks up with the Metalian where they combine energy or something and become a new entity. I have no idea if it will be called Metallica, Metalium or what.
Now having a ridiculously silly storyline for your concept albums doesn't really put me off. I understand that at times metal can be a pretty silly genre to be in and that's okay. Helloween, Manowar, Hammerfall, Kiss, even Alice Cooper at times, are all good for those looking for a less serious time when listening to metal. Metalium is probably trying to fit in between those first two bands and that's perfectly fine with me... as long as the music is good.
Unfortunately the music is the band's biggest weakness. I get the impression that a lot of thought was put into the concept but most of the songs are weak and derivative. Think Keeper of the 7 Keys-era Helloween without that bands mastery of songwriting and you'll get a good idea of what's going on here. Somehow the band was able to recruit Don Airey of Deep Purple fame to lend his keyboards here but frankly I'm at a loss as to why he'd agree.
There are some pretty good ideas for songs but very few of them work well. The album's centerpiece is the 12-minute track, "Illuminated (opus 1)", which might have been a decent mid-tempo metal song if it was cut down to around 5 minutes. It just keeps repeating verses and choruses until the listener is ready to skip to the next track. The band is decent, but lead guitarist Matthias Lange has a weird tendency to come up with flashy solos which don't make a lot of sense in the context of the song and end up detracting from what's going. "Illuminated" is fine, if overlong, while he's laying down rhythm tracks and melodic leads but once he starts shredding he seems to lose the context of the song. Unfortunately this isn't an isolated case. If you're going to have solos, they ought to add to the songs or at the very least impress the listener and these do neither.
Tracks like "Warrior" and "Pain Crawls in the Night" are pure Teutonic power metal without a trace of progressive metal in their composition. The band seems almost intent on pummeling the listener into submission with their total lack of sonic variation.
Fortunately they do have the ability to craft a solid power metal song as evidenced on "No One Will Save You". It's obviously the same band, but they seemed to have realized that the key to writing a good power metal song is to have a catchy main riff and this track definitely has one. It is definitely the high point of the album.
Considering that the album's concept resolves around the female Metaliana the band decided to bring in Japanese "Metal Princess" Saeko Kitamae to give voice to her on the track "Find Out". Saeko certainly voices a mean sounding Metaliana but I'm not sure she's really got a voice suited to counterbalancing the rest of the band, particularly the vocals of Henning Basse. Basse has a pretty standard power metal voice with good power and a range that sounds about an active higher than seems comfortable. His main problem is what he's singing and not how he sings it. The band sings in English, which does impress me, but I still can't help noticing when some of their phrases don't make sense or the pronunciations are off.
To be honest, I've heard worse metal albums before. As One may not be great but there are a few moments where the potential of the band shines through. You're probably better off sticking with Helloween or Gamma Ray, but if you've tired of those bands or just want a fix of some new power metal I suppose you could give Metalium a shot.
Recommended:
No
Great Music to Play While: Cleaning the House
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Epinions.com ID:
Mordred
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Member: Kevin
Location: Austin, TX
Reviews written: 162
Trusted by: 151 members
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