• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Ah, Powergod, one of my favorite bands as a teenager. I first listened to them when I was about 12 years old and used to search my brother's collection for good music (one of the perks of having a metalhead brother who is 8 years older than you), and they definitely helped shape my taste in Heavy Metal. Formed in 1997 in Hagen, Germany, by Andy Brings and Haan Hartmann with the desire to pay homage to the great bands of Power Metal such as Helloween and Gamma Ray, the band released only 5 albums in their short run from 1997 to 2007, this being their first one.

Evilution - Part I has everything you can expect by a German Power Metal act: fast riffs, great choirs, cool solos and, most importantly, jaw-breaking heaviness. Vocalist Leo L. Sing shows versatility throughout the album, displaying high-pitched vocals at times, but also aggressiveness when necessary. The Helloween influence is evident on songs like "Children of Lost Horizons" and "Mean Clean Fighting Machine", but the band manages to maintain personality by tuning down the guitars and giving an extra punch on the bass and drums, making the experience way heavier than you would expect, resulting in a somewhat mid-term between Helloween and Paragon, maybe in the line of Metalium.

All German Power Metal fans should get their hands on this, as it contains every element we love the most on the genre. An above-average debut album with catchy tunes, Evilution - Part I showed us back in 1999 that quality Power Metal also resides outside the Dungeons & Dragons atmosphere.