Band : PowerWorld

Album title : PowerWorld

Label : Metal Heaven

Distributor : Rough Trade

Release date : 28/03/2008

Release : CD

After leaving Freedom Call in the middle of 2005, bassist Ilker Ersin immediately set out to search the musicians needed to continue the musical legacy of Melodic Metal he'd gotten involved in. He soon found an accomplice in Freedom Call 's keyboarder Nils Neumann , but the rest of the line-up as more difficult to consolidate. Originally guitars were handled by Jörg " Warthy " Wartmann (ex- Minaton & Justice ), drums by Rami Ali (of Justice , Evidence One and Frontline repute), with Chity Somapala (whom you might know from Firewind , Avalon , Moonlight Agony , or Faro ) on vocals. Ties with the latter were severed in January 2006, due to the traditional "musical differences" (two months later Somapala would announce the formation of Civilization One ), and in his stead came frontman Steffen Brunner (previously with Backbone).

A first 4-track demo surfaced in late May, an additional new track being posted at their myspace.com/powerworld page in October, when it is revealed that the band are busy recording a full-length album. Recordings finished in mid April of 2007 (which is not that amazing, becuse the band used several facilities to record: G-Tracks Studio with Sascha Gerstner recording the drums; Pig House with Kepic recording his guitar parts, and the rest recorded by Ersin at Pascha Studios), the mixing of the album was then confided to Chris Lausmann (of Voices Of Rock, Jaded Heart, Bonfire, Stratovarius, Cornerstone, Asia, Pink Cream 69,...and many more...repute) in the Summer. Early November the band announces its being contracted for the release of their debut album by Metal Heaven . Meanwhile, it was revealed that prior to the recordings guitar duties had been taken over by Jaded Heart axeman Barish Kepic , drums by At Vance skinbeater Jürgen Lucas.

So there you have the story, for the music, it suffices to surf to the band's Myspace page to get a sample run of the album. Now, in spite of "Warthy" leaving the project, he still brings a solo to the track "Your World Is Not Mine". Additional guests were Oliver Hartmann for choir vocals, aided in this by Chris Schalles, Markus Seitz, and Victor "El Hombre" Ramos. If you're into such bands as Freedom Call (evidently), Stratovarius, or Kotipelto, I suggest you check this one out. Our promo copy holds 11 songs and an intro, totalling a good 54 minutes worth of music. Catchy songs with nice melodies that grab your ear at first listen and, given a couple of spins, will not leave your head for a while.

Some may say we don't need yet another Melodic Metal band to make "that bunch" even larger, but usually you'll find people saying such things are not exactly into the genre, therfore forfeiting their rights to give comments of the like! In fact, PowerWorld is a very fine addition in the genre, as I'm sure a lot of fans who concentrate on the genre will confirm! For them, PowerWorld will at least be a pleasant in-between affair while they're waiting for a new album by their absolute favourite bands. The fun thing about events, is that these same people will soon find out they'll be looking out for a sophomore album by this fine German outfit...adding PowerWorld to their list of favourite bands.

On their own website powerworld.org, the band mentions having recorded an additional track (titled "The Wild And The Young") for bonus purposes, so if you've been reading this review with an ernest interest, maybe you'll want to look out for a limited edition version of the album (I'm not even sure such a version will be out there, as the label's info didn't mention it. Most probably, the bonus is set aside for a Japanese release?).

85/100

Tony.