Review: Brainstorm - Wall of Skulls | |||||||
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Wall of Skulls | |||||||
Label: AFM Records Year released: 2021 Duration: 49:57 Tracks: 12 Genre: Power Metal Rating: Review online: September 11, 2021 Reviewed by: MetalMike |
Readers' Rating How do you rate this release? Rated 4/5 (80%) (10 Votes)
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Review | |||||||
Wall of Skulls is Brainstorm's thirteenth album, and any fan of melodic metal has to have at least a passing familiarity with their prototypical European power metal sound by now. They have been pillars of the scene for decades, releasing an album every 2-3 years like clockwork. Some have been outstanding (2014's Firesoul), but most are just really solid, and they seem incapable of producing anything truly horrible. As with the previous album (Midnight Ghost in 2018), Wall of Skulls falls in the latter category. It is an album full of interwoven melodies and choruses that are so easy to sing along with, it's a little uncanny. Singer Andy B. Franck has a powerful, slightly gritty voice that is perfect for this kind of power metal and his vocal lines are always good. You've got typically classy Brainstorm tunes like "Where Ravens Fly", "Turn Off the Light" and "My Dystopia" and several others to sink your teeth into on Wall of Skulls. What keeps the album from being a monster is the sound producer (and guest vocalist on "Turn Off the Light") Seeb Levermann has delivered. Levermann is the singer for Orden Ogan and, apart from Franck's voice, Wall of Skulls sounds a lot like an Orden Ogan album. The guitars are smoothed out and the bottom end isn't as punchy. There's nothing wrong with Orden Ogan but we have their music and I'd like my Brainstorm a little crunchier, please. I don't dislike Wall of Skulls and, as I said, it is catchy as hell but next time, I'd like Brainstorm to bring a little more thunder. |
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More about Brainstorm... | |||||||
Review: Ambiguity (reviewed by 4th Horseman) Review: Downburst (reviewed by 4th Horseman) Review: Downburst (reviewed by Michel Renaud) Review: Firesoul (reviewed by MetalMike) Review: Liquid Monster (reviewed by 4th Horseman) Review: Memorial Roots (reviewed by Christopher Foley) Review: Memorial Roots (reviewed by MetalMike) Review: Metus Mortis (reviewed by Bruce Dragonchaser) Review: Midnight Ghost (reviewed by Bruno Medeiros) Review: Midnight Ghost (reviewed by MetalMike) Review: On the Spur of the Moment (reviewed by MetalMike) Review: Scary Creatures (reviewed by Bruno Medeiros) Review: Scary Creatures (reviewed by MetalMike) Review: Soul Temptation (reviewed by Bruno Medeiros) Review: Unholy (reviewed by Bruce Dragonchaser) | |||||||
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