Cryonic Temple - In Thy Power

*=Staff's pick	The Sleep Of The Innocent When Hell Freezes Over In Thy Power* Travellers In Time* Beast Slayer Wolfcry Mr. Gold* A Soldiers Tale Shark Attack Rapid Fire Eternal Flames Of Metal

Genre	Heavy/Power Metal	Glen Metal	Vocals
Tracks	11	Esa T. Ahonen	Guitar
Runningtime	56 Min.	Leif Collin	Guitar
Label	Limb Music	Jan J. Cederlund	Bass
Release	30 May 2005	Sebastian Olsson	Drums
Country	Sweden	Janne Söderlund	Keyboards
Similar artists	Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Helloween

Cryonic Temple, who released one of 2003's better albums according to me (Blood, Guts & Glory), are back with their third album entitled In Thy Power. The difference between this album and its predecessor is not big, but maybe the most power metal elements have been held back a tiny bit for a more heavy metal approach.

This is a logic continuation of the debut. Cliché filled, fast paced metal with all elements deeply rooted in the 80's. Big focus on meaty riffs, hooks, twin guitars and harmony solos. A lot of work has apperantly - just like on the last album - been put into the creation of refrains, which all are traditional hymn like: epic, melodic and multi nuanced. Again there is also good guitarwork, with lots of great leads and solos. I am a big fan of Glen Metal's characteristic vocals and he does a very good job on this album also. It sometimes falls a bit on the choruses, however. They sound a bit malplaced and forced at times, but it has nothing to do with his vocals. It's more the choirs, or the arrangements in general.

It is also a bit more self confident and straight on, and less la-la-la this time. After the opening track When Hell Freezes Over, which is one of the more darker and less good tracks, it accelerates and the tempo is pretty high over the whole album but they nevertheless manage to make it sound diverse enough and to keep the interest up the whole running time. Still it can be a bit too much with a whole Cryonic Temple album right away. Songs are sometimes resembling each other in some small parts and almost an hour of music is to stretch it a bit.

There is a perfect mixture of straight on speed bullets like In Thy Power, Travellers In Time and A Soldiers Tale,more midtempo tracks like Mr. Gold and Shark Attack, and the in between songs like Rapid Fire and Eternal Flames Of Metal. In some songs, parallells to Gamma Ray, Helloween and Primal Fear can be drawn, but mostly they have their own style. Nothing ground breaking this time compared to before, but it's a damn nice style they have, these guys. I can't help missing this 'hits' on the album. The tracks on the album are overall very even, but while none are falling behind, there are none that really stick out either.

Something to check up for you who are a sucker for the old school type of heavy metal, and if you liked the previous album, you can buy this one unheard.

See also review of: Immortal , Blood, Guts & Glory

Production	Vocals	Compositions
8	8,5	6,5

Summary
7,5 chalices of 10 - Tommy