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Artist: Astral Doors |
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In
2002 out of Borlange Sweden they came, with a mission to conquer the
Power Metal world with their Dioesque power driven metal. They are of
course Astral Doors, the brainchild of guitarist Joachim Norlund and
drummer Johan Lindstedt, who enlisted the mighty vocals of Nils Patrik
Johansson and Johan’s friend Joakim Roberg (keyboards), and together with Martin
Hagland and Mika Itaranta, they released their debut album ‘Of The Sun
And The Father’. That
was just the beginning, now the band return with their latest outing the
excellent ‘Jerusalem’, that will show the world that Astral Doors are
a force to be reckoned with in Power Metal circles once more. The
album sees the band deliver some of the biggest slices of power infused
Metal to come out of Scandinavia over recent years. The album gets
off to a towering start with ‘Seventh Crusade’, with Johansson
delivering those mighty Dioesque pipes, along with the six string mastery
of Norlund which are built on the solid foundation of Lindstedt’s drums
and Ulf Lagerstroen’s bass. A massive Metal anthem that really gets the
album off to the best possible start. The
towering Metal continues with the all guns blazing rocker ‘With A
Strangers Eye’, before unleashing another mighty metal anthem in
‘Child Of Rock n Roll’. This is where the Dio styled vocal really
comes to the forefront. This could easily been something from Ronnie’s
Black Sabbath days. The
band turn to World War II for inspiration for the dark epic ‘Pearl
Harbour’. A track with more licks that you can shake a stick at, then
it's time to bring the tempo down a touch with the massive ‘Lost
Crucifix’, before bringing it back up to speed big time with the
rocking Babylon Rise’. Keeping
the big guns blazing the band continue to fire on all six with the old
school rocker ‘Suicide Rime’, before reaching back to the Crusades
for ‘The Battle Of Jacobs Ford’, which tells of the Muslims victory
over the Crusaders at Jacobs Ford in Syria. This is epic story telling,
which is often bread and butter to the Power Metal fraternity. It's
time for the band to get really fired up with the ball busting assault
of ‘Operation Freedom’, before a total switch with the almost folk
metal of ‘The Day After Yesterday’. Next this triumphant return
closes with the title track ‘Jerusalem’, again a real slice of epic
Power Metal that rounds off a tremendous release that will have them
rocking in the aisles when the band take to Europe's stages in 2012. |
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Tracklisting:
1.
Seventh Crusade |
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