Silent Force - Infatuator

*=Staff's pick	Infatuator* Fall Into Oblivion* Hear Me Calling Promised Land We Must Use The Power* All Guns Blazing (Judas Priest cover) Trilogy: Cena Libera Gladiator* The Blade* Last Time World Aflame In Your Arms Northern Lights

Genre	Heavy Metal	DC Cooper	Vocals
Tracks	13	Alexander Beyrodt	Guitar
Runningtime	60 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Massacre Records	Jürgen Steinmetz	Bass
Release	03 Dec. 2001	Andre Hilgers	Drums
Country	Germany	Torsten Röhre	Keyboards
Similar artists	Judas Priest, Sinner, Primal Fear

This came as a surprise to me. I had read some other reviews of this album before and based on that praise I purchased it myself. Since I hadn't even heard Silent Force before (just heard of) it felt like I somewhat went out on a limb here. But as I'm sitting here by my computer writing this (and of course having a good cup of black coffee) while I'm listening to Infatuator for the somewhat fourth or fifth time I'm very amazed at how really great it is.

Silent Force have a sound of their own but on some tracks DC Cooper's awesome singing reminds a great deal about Judas Priest at their best moments and the cover All Guns Blazing is a good proof of that. The overall sound is still of traditional German-metal style which means great production, fast and very impressive pounding guitars, double bass drums and great intros, some really awesome solos and choruses. The guitarstring-bending fellow Alexander Beyrodt, formally of Sinner, sure knows how a great metal guitar should sound.

Fast tracks and more mid-tempo ones succeed one another in a steady stream throughout the entire one-hour long album. As it feels right now it's hard to come up with a much better way to spend 60 minutes of listening. So does this mean that we're looking at a full ten chalice award here? Well I (sadly) have to say no because it's not really a full 60 minutes, because the track In Your Arms is a ballad. The presence of this one and the fact that the album somewhat looses its original speed in the last three tracks makes the grade drop (but just a little).

But still, Infatuator is one of the best albums I've bought in the last couple of months and although I've just heard it a few times it's already one of my favourites. So don't miss out on this one, true metal listener. Silent Force has completed a very successful mission with Infatuator and I'm already waiting for their next release. My advise in this matter is that you get out there and get your own copy of Infatuator- hurry home- press play- turn up your amplifiers- wake up the neighbours- and start headbangin'!

See also review of: Walk The Earth , Worlds Apart

Production	Vocals	Compositions
9	9	8,5

Summary
9 chalices of 10 - Mat