Band : Allen - Lande
Album title : The Showdown
Label : Frontiers Records
Distributor : Rough Trade Benelux
Release Date : 05/11/2010
Release : CD

Third installment in the Allen – Lande saga. Once again it was Magnus Karlsson who has written all the songs, and played guitar, bass as well as keyboards on this album. As rumour goes it is said never change a winning team, and luckily for us all they haven’t.  this CD effortlessly goes on where The Revenge left of.  All songs are of a good decent quality, but this new album does not outshine it’s predecessors.  It’s equally good, but surely not better.

Cover art for this album was, once again, done by Rodney Matthews whereas the mixing of the album was this time done by Achim Kohler (Primal Fear, Kiske/Sommerville) which might explain why the album sounds a tad heavier. As on the previous two albums these two vocalists sound superb. I cannot tell which of the two I prefer, although I have a slight penchant towards Mr. Lande, but that’s probably because I do also like most of his solo work as well as his albums with Masterplan, whereas Symphony X, though also not bad, is not as high rated in my list of referees’. Whereas this is nothing new under the sun, I’m already looking forward to the next installment (let’s hope there’s going to be one), and, why not introduce a third vocalist then, maybe even a female vocalist ?

A must buy for all who like to hear top quality vocalists.

87/100

Erik Morren.