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Damn. So, I guess I had skipped on this promo (there is such a thing as promo overload-I have a backlog of several hundred albums), but when I put MetalMike's review up, I checked out the "Peacekeepers" video and... Well, wow. Even though this is kind of poppy, keyboard and electro heavy, I was hooked.

Metalite are, at the root, a melodic power metal band that pack a lot of speed in a lot of their compositions, but they're way more keyboard-heavy than most bands in the genre (at least based on this album as I haven't heard their previous stuff yet). That's not to say that you don't get a good serving of guitars, because that's all there and some of it is air-guitar worthy, and the drumming can get pretty banging at times as well. But what really brings it home are Erica's vocals. They are front and centre and really drive the songs home with the instruments just along for the ride. Her vocals are powerful, soothing, catchy and, damn, do I just feel like singing along sometimes (as long-time readers already know, Canadian Federal law prohibits me from singing as it is cruel and unusual punishment towards anyone within earshot).

Bottom line, if you're a metal purist, which I guess I thought I was until I heard this, you may have a hard time with Metalite's keyboard-heavy approach. I mean, this band can give Freedom Call lessons on "happy metal." A Virtual World may be very poppy but, you know, with the crap the world has been going through in the past year (and likely at least a few more months still), some upbeat, positive-sounding, singalong kind of watered-down metal might just be what we need to get through the darkest days.