Persuader - Evolution Purgatory

*=Staff's pick	Strike Down* Sanity Soiled* Masquerade* Godfather* Turn To Dust Passion Pain Raise Hell* To The End* Fire At Will Wipe Out*

Genre	Power Metal	Jens Carlsson	Vocals
Tracks	10	Jens Carlsson	Guitar
Runningtime	48 Min.	Emil Norberg	Guitar
Label	Noise Records	Fredrik Hedström	Bass
Release	04 Feb. 2004	Efraim Juntunen	Drums
Country	Sweden	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Blind Guardian

They've returned from the cold and are definitely back on track! Swedish Persuader finally opens up another chapter in the band history. The whole deal began in 1997 when the band was formed and a year later their three cut demo Visions and Dreams got them immediate recognition and even a record deal. The debut The Hunter was released in early 2000 on Loud'n Proud Records and the immense praise of the band continued and the journey to stellar-status seemed a done deal.

Unfortunately though Loud'n Proud got bankrupt quite quickly and the band's future career was somewhat slowed down but in 2002 Persuader won the contest Young Metal Gods, a competition organised by seven metal magazines with the primary target to find future metal heroes. The prize? -A record deal with Noise Records and notorious Piet "Iron Savior" Sielck as producer. The result? -The jaw-dropping effort Evolution Purgatory that delivers metal close to perfection.

Persuader have already on many occasions been compared to legendary metal icons Blind Guardian and justifiably so too. Vocalist and also the anchor of the line-up, Jens Karlsson, instantly reminds of Hansi Kürsch and it doesn't even sound as he disguises his voice in a futile resembling attempt but it just his the way he sings. But the likeness with BG doesn't only end with that factor. Persuader also use the same type of metal style in shape of multi-layered vocal arrangements especially during the choruses and the songs themselves are also very Guardian sounding in terms of complexity and tempo changes.

The best way to describe the sound frame for uninitiated listeners is simply to state that Persuader is a more fierce, direct, brutal, aggressive and not quite as complex version of Blind Guardian (especially Tales from the Twilight World) with some thrashy undertones. To this you can also add some typical touches of Running Wild sounding melodic riffing, thrashy guitars that strongly bears In Flames (Clayman in particular) marks and since Mr Sielck stands as producer, some Iron Savior sounding elements are of course also quite detectable. But despite having a very pronounced BG feeling, Persuader shouldn't at all be considered as just an offshoot of BG since they've definitely got their own very unique sound that also falls way outside the more traditional Swedish metal scene.

And not only does Persuader have a vocalist extraordinaire, all the other performers are also cutting through and make their contribution to the final brilliant result. The keyboards are used only in moderation- they stand out in the right places and remain supporting in the background when the guitars dominate the sound frame. The sticksman beats the skins quite furiously throughout and the guitar-work sounds constantly fresh and powerful when the whole deal smoothly turns from thrash to power, from slow to heavy and back again.

All these musical directions and instalments of course give Persuader a very dramatic and exciting style without the ordinary and traditional intro/verse/chorus sections. Their very calculated blend of power/thrash/heavy explosive ingredients work together very effectively and definitely heightens the musical and sonical impact. But it must also be said that it takes more than just the quick introductory spin before the album begins to be recorded by the brain. But when it does, all pieces all the way down from production to the song-writing itself come together and you'll realise that these Swedish youngsters once again have managed to deliver an album that's an immense representation of their work. So this is quite frankly exactly as I wrote before- metal close to perfection.

The only things missing for a full 10 are a little improvement in the solo-department where a little more elaboration and perhaps also somewhat longer ones are absent. And even though it's way above average already, in that area they don't match Blind Guardian's sovereign André Olbrich but then, very few are capable of accomplishing that.

However, Persuader is definitely well-oiled metal machinery that feels as good as 100% free of any corrosion and Evolution Purgatory compiles a formidable tour de force that scribes some significant astonishment. It rips and tears in every direction and delivers a very overwhelming metal experience. This should affect and attract not only fans of Blind Guardian but also the most perfection-minded who crave something that really crackles with powerful music.

This is definitely one of THE alternatives on the buy or die list of the year and Evolution Purgatory recaptures all the excitement (and more) the band provided on their previous outputs. So search no more- the future metal gods have been found! Hurry and get your own copy of this surging metal-bliss!

See also review of: The Fiction Maze , When Eden Burns

Production	Vocals	Compositions
9,5	9,5	9

Summary
9,5 chalices of 10 - Mat