The Storyteller - Crossroad

*=Staff's pick	And The Legend Continues (intro) The Unknown* The Secrets Revealed The Eye of the Storm* A Passage Through the Mountain Ambush* Loss of a Friend Crossroad Kingdom Above The Moment of Truth*

Genre	Power Metal	L-G Persson	Vocals
Tracks	10	Fredrik Groth	Guitar
Runningtime	49 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	No Fashion Records	L-G Persson	Bass
Release	25 Feb. 2002	Martin Hjerpe	Drums
Country	Sweden	Fredrik Groth	Keyboards
Similar artists	Hammerfall, Helloween

The Swedish power metal trio in The Storyteller is back with their second studio release Crossroad. And much has happened since The Storyteller's previous release and all the changes are to the better and Crossroad is a release that makes you very proud to be Swedish. So what are these great improvements? Well, everything really: Production, sound, riffs, songs and especially vocals. The choruses are as pompous as ever before and the tracks are overall faster and more melodic. And above all- there are more of them.

Crossroad contains very melodic intros and some outstanding midsections and solos of absolute world-class. The solos of the tracks The Unknown, The Eye of the Storm, Ambush and Crossroads are of the outstanding "harmonystyle" that should be an ingredient in every bands recipe for a great track. On the awesome album closer The Moment of Truth's midsection we can also revel in some death metal growling and an amazing guitar passage and a choir that are just as majestic as you can imagine.

However there are some factors that I disapprove of a little. We're talking about the almost ever present ballad issue that begins to feel very hackneyed by now and as usual the number of chalices decreases due to this. But I have a suggestion here to all the bands out there that won't stop composing these types of tracks. Keep the melody and just add some tempo, bombastic guitars and some double bass drums and voila- a new killer track! How hard can it be?

But despite this the band tells a great story with Crossroad and die-hard power metalbrothers and sisters are in for a joyous 49 minutes. So when this album hits the stores get a number and stand in line. The power metal tracks are real killers and if you don't have a problem with ballads I can't think of any reason what so ever for you not to be an owner to Crossroad.

See also review of: Sacred Fire , Underworld

Production	Vocals	Compositions
8,5	7,5	8

Summary
8 chalices of 10 - Mat