Mystic Prophecy - Regressus

*=Staff's pick	Calling From Hell* Eternal Flames* Lords of Pain* Sign of the Cross* Night of the Storm* The Traveller In Your Sins Forgotten Soul When Demons Return Regressus- Lost in Time* Mystic Prophecy* The Land of the Dead

Genre	Power Metal	Roberto Liapakis	Vocals
Tracks	12	Gus G.	Guitar
Runningtime	56 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Nuclear Blast	Martin Albrecht	Bass
Release	23 June 2003	Dennis Ekdahl	Drums
Country	Germ., Greece, Swe.	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Iced Earth, Jag Panzer, Seven Witches

Some bands have a tendency to totally miss your window although you're aware of their existence. That was the case with me and Mystic Prophecy. This is a very interesting band with a line up that must be considered as a kind of a metal dream team with it's experienced and well known musicians. Guitarist Gus G is a name that perhaps rings a bell or two which it definitely should since he's also bending strings in Dream Evil, Nightrage and Firewind. (How does he ever find the time?) Vocalist Liapakis can be found holding the microphone in Valley's Eve too where also bass player Martin Albrecht (ex Stormwitch) is a member. The final brother in arms in the band is drummer Dennis Ekdahl who beats the skins in Raise Hell when not in Mystic Prophecy. Taken together this means that many different nationalities and styles of metal have joined forces to create a kick ass audio pleasure. The Swedish/Greek/German constellation is now back with their second full length album, Regressus. The word regressus obviously means "return" if anyone is wondering but if that's got some relation to the lyrics I regretfully must admit I have no knowledge of. But on the contrary, I have lots to say about the other musical aspects.

The sound provided by Mystic Prophecy is a very aggressive, tight, rhythmic and sometimes also thrashy approach which results in a very strong and powerful power metal. Vocalist Liapakis has one of the best metal voices I've come across in recent years and provides a great mixture between raw aggressiveness and a more soaring character. He reminds me very much of ex Iced Earth vocalist Mathew Barlow on many occasions which is a comparison as flattering as any. The guitar playing by Gus G is of course as great as can be expected and he doesn't only prove that he knows how to handle his instrument but it's also very clear how many different metal styles he's capable of delivering. Drummer Ekdahl punishes those skins so hard and furious that you can almost imagine the sweat dripping out of the speakers. Together with Martin Albrecht, he sets the perfect background/supporting sound and you don't need to hear many tones of this album to realize that the musicianship of this band is something to take very seriously.

The major tracks are very similar in build up and mix thrashy parts with more straight forward and bombastic power metal in a way close to perfection. The tunes mainly begin with a neck breaking guitar riff and a very tight and rhythmic verse. It's in these parts of the songs that the thrashy instalments are most obvious and also where Liapakis uses his more harsch and aggressive talents. In the refrains the tightness loosens its grip both vocally and instrument wise and it becomes very melodic and catchy. Liapakis here changes to more soaring types of vocals and some of these choruses actually remind me of a more powerful version of those on Rainbow's Bent out of Shape but that's perhaps just me… Then we of course can revel in some more real cool and crunchy guitar work and of course equally great solos.

The concept rhythmic, thrashy and aggressive verse contra soaring and catchy refrains is a pervading issue in all the songs and the foundation on all of them are constructed. But here we also have on of the few issues to criticize. The songs are a bit too similar and there are also a few of them that feel more like fillers than real killers. The first five and the final three tracks are simply amazing but then there are a couple in the middle that live up to the filler statement. The CD contains 12 songs but 10 would have been more than enough and the loss of those less good would have evened out the album as a whole. A bit more variation wouldn't have hurt, but that's the only negative I could come to think of regarding Regressus, which basically is a release that absolutely has what it takes to stand out from the crowd and very much so too. The production is simply superb and feels very fat and also tight and solid. The little use of keyboards is mainly of the supporting kind and the lack of cheesy ballads is also another huge factor that I really appreciate.

Mystic Prophecy has to 90% here delivered some awesome metal goods and Regressus is a release for those of you that are into the bands listed under similar artists and also for each and everyone who wants a non-happy metal album for a change. Let's just pray that the members of the band continue to concentrate on Mystic Prophecy even in the future because then not much can go wrong and the 100% audio experience might hit will full throttle. 'Til then Regressus definitely makes do. So don't waste any more time folks- go get it!