Guardians Of Time - Machines Of Mental Design

*=Staff's pick	Logging On Faceless Society The Rise Of TriOpticon* More Than Man* TriOpticon* Machines Of Mental Design Puppets Of The Mainframe War Within Escaping Time A Secret Revealed Point Of No Return* Intervention From Beyond* The Journey

Genre	Power Metal	Bernt Fjellestad	Vocals
Tracks	13	Rune Schellingerhout	Guitar
Runningtime	61 Min.	Paul Olsen	Guitar
Label	Massacre	Dag-Ove Johnsen	Bass
Release	01 Sept. 2004	Vidar Uleberg	Drums
Country	Norway	-	Keyboards
Similar artists	Metalium, Iron Savior, Heavens Gate

Machines Of Mental Design, the second album from Norwegian power metallers, was originally released in Scandinavia by a Norwegian label in January. But through the label Massacre it will now be released throughout Europe, and that is a good thing, because Guardians Of Time is a band worthy of attention. These five Norwegians guys play fast and hard melodic metal with power metal melodylines and harmonies, and is perhaps not as jolly as many others in this genre of power metal. Their album is just as much heavy as it is power, and it also features quite a bit of speed.

Their music is fast and contains in true power metal style melodic refrains that is of the catchy kind, not overdone in any way but melodic enough to be catchy and hum-along friendly. The Rise Of TriOpticon shows really fast to be one of the better tracks on the album. The opening with a swirling guitar riff makes you immediately aware of that this track is going to be powerful. And with the deliverance of the verses also being quite powerful and convincing combined with a catchy, yet balanced refrain you know that these guys has the melodic skills. In the track TriOpticon they further demonstrate their good sense of melodic and hard power metal, both the vocal and the guitar lines are exquisite as well as the Helloween styled hooks.

Rune Schellingerhout and Paul Olsen provide solid guitar playing, both with the solo parts and also with the harmonies between the two guitarists. Guardians Of Time manage to keep it all controlled and well balanced and offers a variety and ingenuity with good songwriting skills, although thirteen tracks proofs to be a bit more than necessary. Even though you got a lot of positive energy it gets soaked when it goes on in the same style and more or less the same pace on through the entire album, it tends to becomes an ongoing pounding with the drums and it further feels a bit tedious in the end.

The vocalist Bernt Fjellestad that are somewhat reminding me of Joacim Cans of Hammerfall has a really good voice but struggles somewhat with the higher parts of the high-pitch vocals that comes out a bit flat. There are also similarities to be drawn to Thomas Rettke from Heavens Gate, not least when Bernt is adding some power to his voice. Guardians Of Time does not break through any new boundaries with their really good metal but they have the ability to keep it all together in a good way, and it sounds highly professional even though it gets a bit repetitive after a while.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
7	6	7

Summary
6,5 chalices of 10 - Thomas