Review SCANNER ‘The Cosmic Race’

Scanner belong to the second wave of German power- and melodic speed metal bands that caught people’s attention in the late 80s. While it was bands like Helloween who created the blueprint, it was Scanner from Gelsenkirchen who presented a thoroughly remarkable debut with ‘Hypertrace’ in 1988. With ‘Terminal Earth’, the outer spacer metallers managed to produce a sophomore album of equal quality before the band slowly disappeared from the radar.

Label changes and massive line-up shifts slowed down the band and their development, which meant that the waiting time until the next album lasted six years. As heavy metal was on the decline in the 90s, it was even harder for Scanner to maintain the status they had built up.

Now it’s 2024 and Axel Julius still has the stamina to keep Scanner alive. And not only that. With ‘The Cosmic Race’, the band has a new album in the starting blocks and what’s coming is not bad.

After further line-up changes, the four-piece’s new album is being released these days and it’s nine well-crafted songs that show that the band that is still young at heart. You get the feeling that ‘The Cosmic Race’ sounds more mature than some of their earlier works. ‘Warriors of the Light’ illustrates this development. With good melodies and a great chorus, the song immediately scores some points. At the same time, it’s more than just tralala metal. Rather, it is good song structures that make thetrack exciting and entertaining.

With the slower ‘Dance of the Dead’ follows a track where you can recognize the typical Scanner sound and at the same time it is the doomy opening riff that surprises.

Of course, ‘The Cosmic Race’ has its dramatic moments too. ‘Space Batallion’ is not only the longest track on the album, but also the most multi-layered song with cinematic sequences.

With ‘The Judgement’ having been released nine years ago, it’s all the more astonishing that Scanner have a pretty good album added to their portfolio. If you like melodic metal, you should definitely listen to ‘The Cosmic Race’, because it’s worth it.