GloryHammer - Space 1992: Rise Of The Chaos Wizards

Published September 22 2015

*=Staff's pick	Infernus Ad Astra Rise Of The Chaos Wizards Legend Of The Astral Hammer Goblin King Of The Darkstorm Galaxy The Hollywood Hootsman* Victorious Eagle Warfare* Questlords Of Inverness, Ride To The Galactic Fortress! Universe On Fire* Heroes (Of Dundee) Apocalypse 1992 Dandax Aeterna

Genre	Power Metal	Thomas Winkler	Vocals
Tracks	11	Paul Templing	Guitar
Running time	53 Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Napalm Records	James Cartwright	Bass
Release	September 25, 2015	Ben Turk	Drums
Country	England/Switzerland	Christopher Bowes	Keyboard
Producer	Lasse Lammert
Similar artists	---

GloryHammer's second album pretty much takes off musically where the debut Tales From The Kingdom Of Fife ended. It's still very much epic power metal in its true sense that's presented and this concept did work just fine 2 years ago and therefore I believe that these guys haven't set aim for any kind of significant change either. Even if the lyrical contents aren't the most profound you'll ever hear, it's kind of cute to see how much effort they have put down in all these weird and cunning song titles.

Surely there are a few tracks which don't exactly follow the given recipe of heroic and speedy power metal, but diversity isn't this band's main goal and most songs move forward in a somewhat similar tempo all throughout the record. It's like the most catchy, mellow and goofy songs attract me the most, because I think that The Hollywood Hootsman, with its nice drive and silly lyrics, and Universe On Fire, which in fact is some kind of speedy pop song, are definitely the most outstanding tracks on this album.

Swiss lead vocalist Thomas Winkler was a nice encounter on the first record as he really came out great. He's still a good singer and perhaps I shouldn't question his efforts too much, but with this next album, I think he somehow isn't able to execute with the same convincing validity and it seems like he's holding back a little to kind of come out just a little bit more mature than before.

I think that this record absolutely has its fine moments, but it isn't really able to live up to the band's debut. Even if it is a decent record overall, in the end it's the songs' quality that is the most essential element to produce a viable achievement. This album's predecessor definitely contains more captivating tracks in general and no matter how many spins I give this deal, it still doesn't get a solid grip of me, hence the drop of 2 chalices between this band's first and second record. 5 chalices isn't a bad rating, but my expectations were without a doubt set higher beforehand.

See also review of: Tales From The Kingdom Of Fife

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
6	4	6	7	5

Summary
5 chalices of 10 - Tobbe