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Power Quest - Neverworld


*
=Staff's pick

Neverworld*
Temple Of Fire*
Edge Of Time
Sacred Land*
When I'm Gone
For Evermore
Well Of Souls*
Into The Light
Lost Without You*


Genre Melodic Power Metal
Alessio Garavello
Vocals
Tracks 9
Andrea Martongelli
Guitar
Runningtime 58 Min.
-
Guitar
Label Now and Then Records
Steve Scott
Bass
Release 12 Jan. 2004
Gavin Ward
Drums
Country England
Steve Williams
Keyboards
Similar artists Stratovarius, Freedom Call, Sonata Arctica

UK based melodic metallers Power Quest are back with the sequel to last year's debut Wings of Destiny. Frontman/founder/keyboardist Steve Williams has together with his comrades in arms written and recorded 9 formidable tracks gathered here on Neverworld which I just recently got my hands on. Wings of Destiny showed that the band had serious potential and with this release Power Quest strongly demonstrates that those indications proved to be very valid indeed. The major development that's taken place this time is that the song writing has become so much better. Steve Williams has more than once stated that melody is everything when it comes to music and that's something that becomes very obvious from the very first tone.

The backbone of the Power Quest sound is mainly a happy sounding, highly melodic and catchy keyboard driven speedy metal. These speedier tracks are also accompanied by a few more AOR inspired ones that definitely are positioned at the right places spread evenly throughout the album. While the speedy tunes mainly follow in the footsteps of other "happy metal" bands like Sonata Arctica and Freedom Call the more AOR mid tempo ones remind me very much of bands like Pretty Maids and even Magnum and Scorpions on some occations.

Vocalist Garavello's high pitched voice is a very clear one and on many occations his efforts in combination with the speedy melodic tracks make me think of the magical Michael Kiske years in Helloween. He also gets highly qualified support on two of the tracks (The 10 minute epic closer Lost Without You and the Japanase bonus version of When I'm Gone) from Sabine Edelsbacher of Edenbridge.

The keyboard/synthesizer playing by Williams is very impressive and despite that they dominate the sound frame on many occations they never steal the show or get the upper hand. Williams and Power Quest also use the trumpet sounding keys like their collegues in above all Freedom Call that could be said to have started with Helloween's Eagle Fly Free. But those of you who crave more guitars don't have to sulk or be the too disappointed. On Neverworld you get a huge portion of that too since guitarist Martongelli sure knows how to pull off magnificient leads, powerful power cord riffing, rhythmic and technichal shredding harmonies and of course swirling dynamic solos. And it's above all the many awesome episodes of guitar/keys cooperation that combined with the strong, catchy melody lines and singalong mighty soaring choruses that make Neverworld such a great album.

The songs are also in general quite long and many of them clocks in to more than six minutes and the entire album feels very geniune and thoroughly dealt with. As good as every track is way above average but those that stand out the most are definitely the epic opener and titletrack, the fast driven tunes Temple of Fire, Sacred Land and Well of Souls and finally of course the concluding solemn metal opus Lost Without You. The production is a very good one too and the sound is very clean and clear. The momentum is maintained from the very start all the way across the finish line and the arrangements feel right at place. The only things that I feel I miss is a bit fatter sound and I also think that the whole thing sounds a little too nice and neat, so a slightly more aggressive approach would have made me (almost) completely satisfied =)

Regardless of this Power Quest's keyboard driven speedy melodic ("happy") metal triumphs in grand form on Neverworld which is a much better album than their debut. The new year couldn't possibly has seen a better start with releases like this, Wuthering Heights' Far From the Madding Cry and Heavenly's Dust to Dust. I strongly recommend this latest Power Quest effort to not only the already exisisting crowd of fans but to every reader that's in to bands like Sonata Arctica, Freedom Call and the likes. The album is due for an early 2004 release so I hope you haven't spent all your money on Christmas presents =)

See also review of: Magic Never Dies , Wings Of Forever , Promo 2001

Production
Vocals
Compositions

8

7

8,5

 
Summary



8 chalices of 10 - Mat

Related links:

www.powerquest.co.uk