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Artist: Powerworld |
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After
leaving Freedom Call in 2005 Ilker Ersin formed Powerworld and in 2008
the band released their debut release, but due to other commitments the
band were unable to perform in the live arena. Then during the recording
of their second album, singer Steffan Brunner and Jurgen Lucas decided
to leave the band, leaving Ersin and the remainder of the band, Barish Kepic (guitars)
and Nils Neumann
(keyboards) to continue working on the album to fulfil their contractual
requirements of their label. Subway To Sally drummer Simon Michael
came in to fill the vacant drum stool for the studio work, so all that was needed
was a vocalist to fill the spot left by Brunner. And fill it they did
with one Andrew ‘Mac’ McDermott (ex-Threshold). Shortly afterwards guitarist Barish Kepic
asked Achim Keller to fill the drum stool as a permanent member, so the
new line-up was now complete. The band went on to sign a new record deal with
SPV/Steamhammer and the next chapter in the Powerworld story got firmly underway. So on to
the album itself. Well as a huge, huge fan of Mac’s I must say this
gave the band huge kudos even before I heard a single note from the
album, and I must say I wasn’t disappointed with it when I did finally
get to give it
a spin. The
album is a far cry from the band's debut release, gone are is traditional
mainstream metal sound of the debut, as Mac brings a whole new perspective
to the band. This is a definite upward spiral for sure as the album opens up
with ‘Cleansed by Fire’, which starts off with a great riff and drum
intro, but it's when Mac unleashes those unmistakable vocals that the
class in this album begins to shine through. While Kepic delivers a
fine six string assault, aided and abetted by some fine keyboards from
Neumann, and a powerhouse rhythm section of Keller and Ersin himself.
A
great way to start the album for sure. Things
continue to impress as track two ‘Stand Up’ hits the ground running,
again featuring a fantastic towering vocal from Mac, but one man does not make a
band and the rest of the band bring in the big guns on this one, especially
Kepic who does the business again firing out some superb licks. One of
the tracks of the album for me, without a doubt. The
mighty melodies continue with the darker ‘Evil In Me’, which is
basically thumping
Melodic Metal at its very best. Then there’s a real touch of pure class
with the simply stunning ‘Time Will Change’ and the thumping high
octane title track ‘Human Parasite’. Two very different styled songs
each bringing out the best in Mac’s vocals. 'Time Will Change'
being a more sedate offering while 'Human Parasite' is a more up beat towering slice of Melodic Metal,
both tracks are simply superb though. It's all
change once more as we get a touch of Latin guitar with the short
instrumental of ‘Hope’, then the mood switches back to the full on Melodic
Metal with the anthemic ‘East Comes To West’ and lick
laden ‘Children Of The Future’. Another
of my favourites off this immense album is ‘Caught In You Web’,
another huge vocal from Mac that is laden with power and grace and as all fans
of the man know, this is his trademark, but track of the album has to be the
fantastic all out Melodic Metal attack called ‘Tame Your Demons’.
This one has it all, big licks, a kick-ass back beat and of course a
superb vocal. This one has to be heard to be believed, it's 6 minutes 10
seconds of pure Melodic Metal gold. After
the might of 'Tame Your Demons' the tempo is brought down a little with ‘Might Of
Secrets’ before the album closes with another classy slice of melody
rich metal in ‘King For A Day’. This is
album that nearly didn’t come about but I’m sure glad that Ersin
stuck to his guns and found the perfect voice for this record. I hope
this will be a long union between Mac and the rest of the guys because a
voice like his needs to be heard. |
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| Tracklisting:
1.
Cleansed By Fire |
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