CD review METAL ALLEGIANCE ‘Volume II – Power Drunk Majesty’

(9/10) Metal Allegiance is nothing less than the who is who in metal. The all-star project, that in the meantime evolved to a band setup, is built on the core band itself with the four founding members, Alex Skolnik, Mark Menghi, Mike Portnoy and David Ellefson.

Things began with a performance on the Motörboat Cruise in 2014, followed by an album that surprised the metal world. This first release featured many well-known metal musicians. The cooperation was overwhelming, with a divers and dynamic metal record being the result of the effort.

‘Volume II – Power Drunk Majesty’ is a continuation of a success story that, four years later, starts to blossom even more. Its a again the center-quartet of the four founders that built the solid base for Metal Allegiance. And as it was with the debut, the guys could win veteran metal singers over to contribute to ten new songs.

These tracks have been done the old-fashioned way. Metal Allegiance ins’t an e-mail- and files sending project. Real people met, created music together and recorded things after having rehearsed. This is a solid part of the successful achievement, entitled ‘Volume II – Power Drunk Majesty’.

The album and the ten songs are an ode to metal. This album doesn’t stick to one very specific genre. It’s the singers that add a certain note to each of the songs. Amon Amarth’s Johan Hegg growls trough a metal stampede entitled ‘King With a Paper Crown’. It’s again amazing how much range he has in his growling, a gift that enriches this metal beast.

To be clear, all these songs are brilliant and it’s a great experience to listen to ‘Bound by Silence’ with the fantastic John Bush doing the vocals. I felt reminded of Bush’s days with Anthrax. Awesome. In the end it doesn’t matter which song you pick. ‘Mother of Sin’ with the brilliant Bobby Blitz and ‘Impulse Control’ with Death Angel’s Mark Osegueda are heavy pounding metal anthems that belong to the best the genre can offer.

Last but not least I have to mention the closer too. ‘Power Drunk Majesty (Part II)’ features Dutch Floor Jansen at the microphone. Jansen is the only female singer on the album and her appearance adds another shade to this blistering album. The songs has nothing to do with what we know from Nightwish. Jansen enriches this terrific power metal track with her voice, making it to a real highlight at the end of an excellent album.

‘Volume II – Power Drunk Majesty’ combines the power, experience and passion of many veteran metal icons. Combined forces and a lot of willpower led to an album that belongs to the real metal highlights in 2018.

(9/10)

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