Of the Son and the Father

Astral Doors is one of those bands that became a huge hit in the traditional and power metal circles pretty much overnight. Their debut full length in 2003, “Of the Son and the Father”, paved the way for the band’s defining albums, “Evil Is Forever” and “Astralism”. Still unable to recapture the flame of their earlier works, Astral Doors continues to plod along mediocrity, hoping to one day recapture the flame. While the band’s debut isn’t their best work to date, it is still light years ahead of anything they’ve put out since “Astralism” reared its head in 2006.

“Of the Son and the Father” showed the world that Astral Doors was obsessed with Dio. From the band’s fascination with magic, sorcery and evil to the very traditional approach to heavy metal, there’s a little Ronnie James in every aspect of their approach. While this sure isn’t the most memorable album under the sun, there are plenty of hooks to sink into. The real problem with the tracks here is that there isn’t much lasting power. Unlike the memorable Dio anthems “Rainbow in the Dark” or “Dream Evil”, which had choruses that would stick for weeks upon weeks, the Astral Doors version doesn’t stay with you much past the end of the album.

Most of the album flows by uneventfully. The guitars range from melodic chords to rollicking traditionally inspired riffing. The leads are enjoyable, rather standard and unremarkable, but they get the job done. Astral Doors is at its best when the rollicking guitars get into a rocking groove that any head banger could wreck their neck with: catchy, catchy, catchy. Every track also shows keyboard work out of the wazoo, but not the wanky power metal variety. The keys here, frankly, sound more similar to the Hammond organ style that was used during metal’s early years. Honestly, there’s not more than thirty seconds on this album not backed by these keyboard lines. At times they mesh with the guitars so well that it’s almost sonic perfection but other times the two instruments battle each other to the point of pure tomfoolery. The drums are quite standard with a galloping double kick style that fits well with the chunky guitar riffing. The bass, while not utterly memorable, wanders into some nifty walking lines and thick backing sessions during slower sections. As with most things Astral Doors has done, the true standout is vocalist, Nils Patrik Johansson. Comparisons have been made to the almighty Dio, but Nils has a more nasally and raw delivery. His normal verse style is a little whinier than the mighty RJD, but where he excels is in the catchy hook-laden chorus department. The vocals lines during the choruses are typically a lot more energetic and delivered with more oomph than the verses.

Don’t get me wrong; when the band gets on fire the music is intense, catchy, rhythmic and anthemic. Listen to the fiery approach on “Burn Down the Wheel” with its intense lead lines and driving rhythms or the amazing catchiness and hook-laden “Cloudbreaker” to hear that Astral Doors has the chops and song writing skills to be a contender in the post-Dio era of traditional metal. On the other hand, when the band is off, it’s almost painful to listen to. The slow, dirge like crawling that is “The Trojan Horse” shows that Astral Doors isn’t as good when they try to slow things down and “In Prison for Life” shows the band reaching for a Thin Lizzy-ish, hard rock approach and failing miserably. Rather than going on epic binges, every track here is around three to four minutes, which works for and against the band, as they have no time to build songs further than a standard verse chorus verse chorus style, but then again, it keeps them from getting to full of themselves.

“Of the Son and the Father” is an above average debut by a band that had the potential to be completely and utterly amazing. After this debut and two other awesome albums, the band squandered away what talent it had by making dull and insipidly boring garbage. If you’re looking for some quality Dio inspired traditional metal, then look no further. I'd recommend checking out the next two albums first, but this one is up there as well. This is anthemic and catchy traditional metal with a huge hard on for all things Dio.

Written for The Metal Observer:
http://www.metal-observer.com/