Black Empire

Force Of Evil is, as many of you are probably well aware of, the band of Hank Shermann, Bjarne T. Holm and Michael Denner, who all have a past in Mercyful Fate, joining forces with King Diamond-bassist Hal Patino and the much younger Iron Fire-singer Martin Steene. In 2003 a decent debut album was released. Nothing really special, but there was a certain nostalgia attached to that album which made it a fun listen. And especially Steene was a pleasant surprise, sounding much stronger than on any Iron Fire album so far. The music had clear Mercyful Fate references, but then without, to me, the most annoying Mercyful Fate element, being the lead vocals.

Less than a year later, Force Of Evil had finished this new album. And once again, Marin Steene is one of the strongest presences on the album. The youngster definitely adds something to the band, as his blazing vocals add an exciting edge to the quite predictable music. And that music leans towards the Mercyful Fate-side even more than the debut, as 'Black Empire' is a lot darker than the self titled debut. That sounds good and promising, and it would have been really good if the album was interesting from start to finish, but either this album lasts too long or the order of the songs isn't chosen too well. It's really too bad, because there's enough potential in this band and it's song material.

That potential is shown really well in the opening title track, which has to be the best Metal song of 2005! 'Black Empire' is a song with a clear 'Painkiller'-vibe (mainly because of Steene's Halford-like vocals), but has a lot of nifty climaxes that are even better than in 'Painkiller'. Martin Steene is in optima forma in this song. He screams, sings and even grunts on top of some killer guitar riffs and perfectly fitting rhythms, that make me headbang fanatically. There are some absolutely killer solos in this song as well, although I have to say that Shermann's are just a bit more exciting than Denner's, but that is something which goes for the entire album.

'Back To Hell' was chosen to made a video for and I understand that choice, as it is one of the more accessible tracks available on this album. It's a really good one too. Especially the way the song is built up is really cool, there's this interaction between the two guitars divided over your two speakers which has an awesome effect. The riffs in this midtempo track are once again killer and so are Steene's vocals. One of the best things about this song is the bridge to the chorus, just check it out and you'll know what I mean.

'Cabrini Green' is, dispite its terrible lyrics, a really nice song too. The lyrics are a weak point of the album anyway, all the songs are linked to horror themes but instead of creepy, they sound pretty funny actually. This song is probably the best example of that. But the guitar riffs and the vocals sound really well, so there's no major complaint here.

A doomier side of Force Of Evil is displayed in 'Death Comes Crawling' and it is displayed successfully. This is actually one of the most interesting tracks of the album because of the many changes in tempos and moods all throughout the song and builds up to a great climax. There was an early version of 'Death Comes Crawling' on the 'Evil Comes...Alive'-DVD, but this one definitely beats the shit out of that version.

Unfortunately, these were the highlights of the album. It all goes downhill after that. 'The Sinister Show' isn't bad at all, the song is decorated by nice guitar riffs and once again very good solos, but 'Days Of Damien' is a song which fails at being a song of epic proportions miserably. Apart from that nice faster riff in the middle of the song, this song just keeps on dragging and seems to want to work to a climax, but doesn't succeed in that. And besides, 'The Omen' has been sucked completely empty by other Metal bands, there's nothing cool or evil about that concept anymore. A weak song.

'Disciples Of The King' is butchered by it's terrible chorus, as is 'Beyond The Gates', even though the rest of the latter song is quite good. 'Hobbs End' is a temporary peak, as it has some interesting rhythmical things and the climaxes in that song actually do work. It's almost as good as the first four songs of the album, but 'Dead In Texas' (the concept of Leatherface has been sucked empty as well) and 'Vorhees Revenge' are an insult for everyone who appreciates the past of the band members.

Luckily the album ends in a very decent fashion with 'S.O.S.'. The only complaint about that song is that the sound effects in the beginning (the overused blowing winds) last a little too long, but the song that follows them makes up for that more than perfectly. 'S.O.S.' has a very unusual structure as compared to the rest of the album, contains a couple of outstanding guitar riffs and evolves into a Slayer-like chaos near the end of the song, with the difference being that the screaming guitars are replaced by several layers of Martin Steene's vocals. Let's just say this song saves the honor of the album.

So there are several complaints about this album...the five best songs are the first four songs and the closer, all the songs sound kind of similar and the same can be said about the tempos of the songs, there should have been two or three more fast songs on there. On the other hand, the vocals are stellar, there are some killer songs on there and the production fits the dark atmosphere of the music really well. This band definitely has some potential, but maybe this album just came out too soon after the debut...