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Artist: Herman Frank |
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The name of
Herman Frank is renowned as the guitarist with Accept and co-founder of
such bands as Victory and Moon Doc, and producer to the likes of Rose
Tattoo, Messiahs Kiss and Saxon. Now in 2009 the German axeman
returns with his first solo album 'Loyal To None', along with fellow
Victory band mate Jiotis Parachidis on vocal duties, Peter Pichl on bass
and Stefan Schwarzmann on drums, this band deliver an album as Heavy
Metal as you can get, with not only Frank’s guitars making themselves
felt but the massive vocals of Parachidis being second to none. This is a
true blue Heavy Metal album that rocks from the opening chord of 'Moon
II' to the final drum beats of 'Welcome To Hell', this is a thumping
slice of Metal and a real heads down rocker. The opening
track ‘Moon II’ is a blistering mix of heady drums and pummeling
drums and spellbinding guitars and that’s just the first few seconds
then Parachidis unveils those mighty pipes. He comes across as the
best of Ripper Owens mixed with Deris and just a touch of Dio for good
measure, and Frank doesn’t hog the spotlight, he just does what he
does best and fires out lick after mother f*cking lick. This is
one hell of an opening barrage and sets out standard for the rest of the
album. Which
continues its fast a furious pace with
‘7 Stars’, this is where Parachidis does a mean Ronnie James
against a background of spearhead guitars and a monster rhythm section.
This is METAL!!! And there is no other way of putting it. It's rocking
all the way with the Melodic Metal of ‘Father Buries Son’, this song
could have easily been off Dio’s 'Last In Line' album, it has that
similar feel to it a towering vocal over some sublime guitars and a
solid back beat. Things do
slow down a touch with the excellent arena metal of ‘Heal Me’, but
this is just a short rest-bite before the power-strewn metal continues
with one of my many favourites off the album ‘Hero’. A
towering anthem with Parachidis giving 110%, as a vocalist he is one of
the unsung hero’s he manages to mix power with grace something that of
lot of Metal vocalists don’t have it more something a Melodic Rock
vocalist has. The album
continues to impress with the mighty ‘Kill The King’ and the
fantastic riff filled powerhouse ‘Down In The Valley’, a real head-bangers
delight this one. The
traditional metallists amongst you will just love the old school
renderings of ‘Lord Tonight’, but track of the album has to be the
superb ‘Bastard Legions’, this is rocking metal at its best this one
will you dusting off that air guitar and rocking around the bedroom for
sure. The album
closes with ‘Welcome To Hell’ another fine slice of Melodic Metal
and rounds off a great album. I can't
state how much I love this album, it's how a Heavy Metal album should
sound and with Frank taking all the production and writing accolades for
the album it's no wonder. He has obviously taken his years in the
business and thrown down the gauntlet to all the other Metal bands
around and said beat this. |
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Tracklisting: 1. Moon
II
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