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Whenever the
name of Carsten 'Lizard' Schulz is connected to a project you know we at
the Mayfair Mall will sit up a take notice, and when we heard he was
getting together with Roger Staffelbach for his Angel Of Eden project the
interest rapidly increased. Add in to the mix Carsten’s powerhouse
drummer from Evidence One Rami Ali and the incredible keyboard skills of
Mistheria, then your really talking star quality, and that's exactly what
Staffelbach was hoping to achieve with this his new band. It's been
10 years in coming but finally he's got a band of his own in the form of
'Angel Of Eden', and what a band!
This mix of
melodic power metal with neoclassical elements all go to make for one hell
of an album. Right from the opener and title track 'The End Of
Never', the album unleashes not only Schulz's fine vocals, but also the
thunderous drum skills of Ali against Staffelbach’s trademark guitar sound
and the almost spellbinding keyboards. This monster is some of
Schulz’s heaviest material to date, but the power of the vocals are equal
to the metal onslaught.
The album
continues with ‘Dreamchaser’ a track that is not as savage an attack as
the opener but is equally as impressive, from the atmospheric opening
which makes way for Staffelbach to shred like a demon and the rhythm
section which all go to make this another full on metal delight.
'Angel Of Eden'
is next and the pace is brought down just a touch on this one. Again
the guitar work of Staffelbach is superb and with Schulz you know you're
going to get a vocal performance that is second to none.
The first part
of the ‘Return Of The Pharaoh Pt. I’ just lifts the album to another level
of excellence. This track epitomizes the whole Power Metal
genre with its epic style and flamboyant riffs laid down by Steffelbach,
backed by a hard core rhythm section and keyboards that lay waste to this
instrumental masterpiece.
'The Battle Of
1386' finds Schulz taking a back seat on the vocal front as none other
than the mighty John West takes up the mike for this particular song.
A song so real you can almost smell the gunpowder on this very atmospheric
piece.
Schulz returns
to the fold with another powerful performance on ‘Into The Black’.
This song features more thunderous drums courtesy of Ali with both
Staffelbach and Misteria running riot with the solos throughout this one.
Then it's back
to the instrumentals with ‘Return Of The Pharaoh Pt. II’, with Staffelbach
once again showing off his exquisite skills with the six string.
Next it's back
to some more melodic metal with one of my favourite tracks ‘Keys To
Avalon’, where Schulz leads the way for Staffelbach and the rest of the
band to ignite the speakers with this all round excellent band
performance.
'Stampede' is
just that, it's like a herd of charging pachyderms. The drums of Ali
pounding out the beat as Staffelbach and Misteria burn up the keys and
fret boards, leaving only Schulz to fill the gaps with his sheer powerful
vocals.
The album
finishes with the final of the three instrumentals ‘Towards The Light’,
which again shows off Staffelbach’s superb fretwork and rounds off this
breathtaking
debut to true style. This is just what Staffelback's fans have been
waiting for and is a release that is sure to win over a whole new set of
fans of this guitarist with magical fingers and a passion for his music.
As someone with a liking for good, strong power metal with lots of melody
and textures this release has left me wanting more and I'm sure you'll
feel the same when you hear it too. |
