Outlaw

Astralion is certainly making a name for themselves as one of the most serious power metal bands (musically speaking) with some of the most blatantly non-serious album covers. To be fair, there is a certain degree of comic liberty that goes with said sub-genre of metal, and given the recent trend in cinema of mixing film genres like Sci-Fi and Westerns (something that Iron Savior also recently picked up on), the timing seems right for these Finns to get in on the craze. A couple years ago this band managed to wow the hell out of the author of this review with a beast of a speed infused power metal album that had all of the right ingredients from both the Helloween and Stratovarius schools, a departure from the more Neo-classically tinged, moderated and intellectual approach of Olympos Mons, the former project of two key persons involved here. Now this group is back with an equally compelling beast of a sophomore effort dubbed Outlaw that thankfully sees little to no changes from the winning formula of their debut.

One might almost be tempted to accuse Astralion of releasing the same album twice given the radical similarities found here in relation to the self-titled first LP. Roughly the same ratio of fast to even more fast is the rule here, loaded up with plenty of flashy guitar and keyboard interchanges to make all the brethren of the order of Malmsteen smile in approval, and a vocal performance out of Ian E. Highhill that is becoming more and more like Timo Koltipelto with every new release. The most obvious comparisons that spring forth in terms of the musical display are that of Dreamtale and also Ghost Machinery's 2010 sophomore album Out For Blood, both largely consisting of a more distilled and speed oriented answer to the era of Stratovarius that spanned 1995 to 1998, with some occasional hints from some classics from older heavy metal outfits. For example, following an unsubtle homage to a scene from the movie included in the title, "Deathphone (Final Destination)" has something of a Painkiller meets late 80s Malmsteen vibe to it that's a bit more menacing than the majority of the album, and although otherwise a typical high octane nod to current Euro power metal trends, "Ghosts Of Sahara" has an ever so subtle hint of Maiden's "Powerslave" going on at an even faster tempo.

Naturally these aforementioned exceptional numbers are surrounded by a lot of more typical songs that are generally moderate in scope and geared toward the melodic rank and file. Most of them tend to mirror that "all fast, all the time" demeanor of a number of recent post-Dragonforce outfits, such as "Black Adder", "Nightmares Never Give Up", "Heading West" and "The Outlaw", each one chock full of double kick drum madness, blinding speed riffing out of the early Sonata Arctica method, and loaded of nimble keyboard themes that hang over the fringes like snow on top a vast mountain range. It's actually a bit interesting here these wild west themed lyrics over a musical style more readily associated with Science Fiction, all but begging the question of why these guys weren't tapped to score the "Cowboys vs. Aliens" movie. Rounding out the remains of this album is not one, but two fairly impressive epic length songs: the first a seven-minute nod to Visions era Stratovarius and a lyrical return to something along the lines of Olympos Mons' historically geared subjects, the second a charming folk-tinged and even longer epic of a throwback to the old days of seafaring adventure.

There aren't really any major complaints that could be thrown at this album except for maybe if one tends to hate just about everything associated with post-Helloween power metal in northern Europe. The token ballad "Wastelands Of Ice" is perhaps a bit of an unnecessary speed bump amid a sea of high flying adventure, but on its own it is a fairly decent song that reminds of those occasional slower rockers with ballad tendencies that Timo Tolkki would craft circa the late 90s to generally good affect. But otherwise, this is about as fast and fun as they come, even when compared with a number of competitors out there for such a title like Thaurorod and Victorius. It's uncertain whether the next incarnation of the demonic arachnid mascot of Astralion will be toting ninja weapons or a laser cannon on the next installment of this ongoing saga, but what will be contained within is sure to be yet another boon for those who like it fast and technical. That'll be a bottle of Wild Turkey and a dirty glass bartender, and make sure the alien spider on the bottom is dead, please.