This German Classic Rock guitarist is one of the household names of the Steamhammer roster, having delivered a total of 17 albums (2 of which live recordings, 4 being compilations, one – last year's Diamonds Uncovered – a covers album) in 19 years, each with an equal commercial success in the homeland and beyond. Since 2000, with the joining of (American born) drummer Mike Terrana to the core of singer Johnny Gioeli, keyboardist Ferdy Doernberg, and bassist Volker Krawczak  (the first two had joined in 1998 for the Oceans Of Time album, the latter already with Pell since the beginning of hois solo career), the Axel Rudi Pell band has also had a steady line-up! (For those interested in still available reviews of past albums by Axel Rudi Pell, 2006's Mystica's was posted on 18/09 of that year, last year's covers collection Diamonds Unlocked on 23/09, and this year's DVD Live Over Europe on 17/02)

If you're a Classic Rock fan and have never come across Pell's music, you must've lived on Mars for the last two decades, but I'll oblige by giving you a description of what you might expect to hear when listening to one of the man's albums. According to Wikipedia "...He plays a classic traditional melodic heavy metal, predictably guitar-oriented but less flashy than Yngwie Malmsteen, with an emphasis on softer ballads as evidenced by three separate ballad compilations over the years...," and indeed Pell's style is less flashy although based still in Classic music (certain choises of typical tonalities) and Classic Rock (see Deep Purple, Rainbow, and more of that ilk) although with a somewhat heavier emphasis...and just like typical for all mentioned above, there's an atmospheric keyboard to sustain him throughout the songs, occasionally going solo for an Ambient-like intro (or outro). Equally typical in the music of Axel Rudi Pell, is the strong rhythm basis of prominent bass and pounding drums, and Gioeli's high-pitched voice (backed in similar way). If you're looking to find out what the band sounds like first hand, there's several ways for you to go: you can either go listen to 30-second samples of all songs on a total 6 albums at the artist's page at Allmusic.com, listen to no less than 172 samples (should be from about every album ever made, but the list has the songs mingled in a somewhat weird way) at Amazon.com, or you can listen to 2 (times 2) full-length songs off the Kings And Queens (2004) and The Masquerade Ball (2000) albums at myspace.com/axelrudipellunofficial.

The new album is no different from the previous material, even if in the "bio" on the back of our card-board promo copy Pell announces that there's "...a few innovations...," and goes on with, "...but don't worry, these modern approaches are only gradual and don't affect the typical flair of my songs". Just like on previous albums, you'll find songs which are closer to ballads ( with "Touching My Soul" as topper, and the instrumental "Emotional Echoes" also having that flair, album closing "Northern Lights" rather being countable under the categorization of "Heavy Ballad" due to the very strong guitar in the chorus parts of the song). Other than that, I would say that this album has a higher content of more energized songs than on any previous album after all! Still, the Axel Rudi Pell fan can buy the album without any worries, and find material in the vein which he's come to know from this band. If you happen to be one of those "music fans" who need to hear something from every album before actually going out to buy it...well, you can actually do that by surfing to the band's website axelrudipell.com, and find samples for àll album songs on the opening page (read the individual entries, and take the trouble to scroll down the page back to August 28 to find the first sample of 10! Hey man...for once there ain't even any cover on this album...niiice!!!

90/100

Tony.