Evil Is Forever

At first I have to say that Astral Doors is strongly influenced by Ronnie James Dio and Tony Martin era Black Sabbath. You can hear it in almost every song and Nils Patrik's voice isn't very individual but very good indeed. I will recommend this album to metal fans who are into 80's stuff especially DIO. Of course this is also a great way to newer fans to find good old stuff which they haven't heard much before. If you're a true fan of DIO or Tony Martin it is possible that you don't like Astral Doors at all because their music is so strongly influenced by those masters. However this album is an excellent work by Astral Doors. In my opinion this is much better stuff than DIO has done in years. It is much said, but I truly think that this album rocks so hard and Astral Doors will be a big name in the future.

The album starts with two fast hard rock/heavy metal songs. Bride Of Christ is one of my favourite songs on album and Time To Rock is a DIO influenced solid rocker. These two songs prove right away that Astral Doors is a group of great musicians. The title track Evil Is Forever contains an interesting and funny intro part which is cool. Evil Is Forever isn't so fast like two first songs but Nils Patrik's great voice and beautiful guitar work by band prove that this is also one of the finest songs on the album. Lionheart starts with an emotional and slow intro. This song is a quite traditional hard rock song but still good enough. There is also a good outro, which closes this song beautifully. Praise The Bones is a song that contains cool guitar riffs and simple but very good chorus. You'll certainly bang your head with this one. Pull The Break is a fast song which however doesn't contain anything special. Fear In Their Eyes is the next song and it is full of mystical atmosphere, like Black Sabbath. I like this one very much and Nils Patrik's voice is great on that song. Stalingrad is a fascinating, different, mystical and solid song. There is also a great chorus and some guitar melodies are very powerful. From The Cradle To The Grave is my least favourite on this album but it isn't a bad song. The chorus is stupid. However there are some great moments & vocal lines on that one also. Overall that song is average. The Flame is better than the previous song but not even close to the best songs on Evil Is Forever album. Path To Delirium is the the final track and it contains great atmosphere. Intro part is cool on this one. I think that this song is a successful ending to this great album.

Cover art of this album is quite good although the cover would as well be a cover of DIO album. As my final words I would say: Give this album a chance. I bet you will surprise how good this album is. For me this will probably be one of the best albums released in year 2005.