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From the moment I first played "2012," the opener on Taberah's Necromancer, I was hooked. Power Metal is my favored genre and this album is chock-full of the stuff. Crunchy and guitar-driven, with only occasional keyboard supports, Necromancer had me playing air guitar and singing along from the start. The songs almost all feature a speedy tempo, another positive in my book, and you'll never get the choruses of "Burning in the Moonlight" or "The Hammer of Hades" out of your head. The riffs abound and there are some spectacular runs up and down the fret board during the solos. Taberah even handle the cover of Deep Purple's "Burn" well, though they needed some help multi-tracking the vocals to emulate Coverdale's original performance. The ballad, "Don't Say You'll Love Me" and the acoustic instrumental, "One Goon Bag Later," are the weak spots. They aren't bad but are nowhere near as exciting or engaging as the rest of the album. The songwriting is by no means inventive but Taberah's music sounds both authentically late 80s and slick and modern. This stuff is meant to be played in the car with the windows down and loud as it can be.

Fans of Taberah's countrymen, Black Majesty and one of my all-time favorite albums, Riot's Thundersteel, should not miss Necromancer for any reason. You'll be kicking yourself later if you do.