Kings and Queens

The middle of the 2000s were a time of transition, particularly for the ascendant retro-heavy and Euro-power metal scenes that had experienced a glorious renaissance in the preceding years, as a scene dominated by fast-paced, Helloween obsessed majesty was making way for a safer and more mid-paced alternative that put a greater emphasis on sing-along value rather than blinding speed. The case of Axel Rudi Pell within this context is a curious one, as when taking stock of his project's early millennial offerings versus the ones that graced the middle of the decade, he seemed to be both ahead of the curve and also totally oblivious to the trends of the day. Himself a veteran of the 80s AOR-steeped heavy metal days, Pell would transition into something a bit heavier and more epic, drawing heavily from the masters of the 70s and early 80s such as Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Rainbow and Dio to hone his craft in a decade where metal was being rendered into a 4-letter word. After largely sticking to a balanced mixture of speed, flash, groove and balladry, and soon following the departure of long time vocalist Jeff Scott Soto and drumming maestro of Stratovarius fame Jorg Michael, this band began floating towards a somewhat slower and safer brand of heavy metal expression that dovetails fairly closely with the more modernized version that Masterplan ushered in with their eponymous debut, culminating in what could be dubbed their most restrained album to date Shadow Zone.

One would think that following the ongoing shift in direction that the power metal world was experiencing during the 2003-2004 period that ARP's clockwork 2004 follow up in Kings And Queens would follow the same basic stylistic trajectory, but one would be wrong. Quite the contrary, this outfit's tenth studio offering is about as overt of an attempt to turn back the clock to the 1998 pinnacle of Pell's solo career in Oceans Of Time as one could get without literally going back in time to the late 90s. Barring Mike Terrana's kit work being a bit more heavy-handed in feel when compared to Jorg Michael's gliding speed metal work and the fact that Pell's guitar tone is a tad raunchier here as opposed to his 90s sound, this album could be chalked up to what The Masquerade Ball would have been had ARP evolved more slowly. Between the chillingly expressive melodic lead guitar passages, Malmsteen meets Blackmore infused shredding solos and the Dio-like raspy growls and snarls of now veteran front man Johnny Gioeli, this is an album that screams throwback to a time that metal had forgotten once and was beginning to forget again like its going out of style. About the only thing missing from the roster is one of ARP's Neo-classically infused instrumental compositions, yet at the same time, this album manages to embody that duality of medieval mysticism and modernized blues-based rock/metal goodness that made Magic and Between The Walls unsung classics.

Though this band has always had a flair for painting a dark and dreary landscape with a combination of dense atmospheric keyboards and a droning melodic lead, this album takes things to a particularly bleak place at its inception befitting the visual of a skeletal revenant holding up a triple crown as his mighty palace crumbles into a flaming red abyss depicted on the cover. The brief introductory instrumental dubbed "The Gate" takes the unique course of forsaking a lead guitar drone for a Baroque-like harpsichord line amid a misty backdrop, and then proceeds to segue into one of the most intense speed metal offerings ever ushered in by this band "Flyin' High", conjuring up the majestic visual of Ronnie James Dio fronting Judas Priest during one of their more intense mid-80s speed metal offerings. Though this album represents the only offering of full on blazing speed in a manner comparable to the Jorg Michael days, the cruising crunch of "Only The Strong Survive" and the punchy groove of "Strong As A Rock" have a forcefulness to them that reminisces heavily upon the upper mid-tempo to moderately fast fair originally represented in "Ride The Rainbow" and "Living On The Wildside". Rounding out the more rocking yet still hard-hitting contents of the whole is a catchy 80s AOR throwback in "Cold Heaven" and a certified early 70s throwback to the glory days of Deep Purple "Sailing Away" with just a hint of spacey 80s goodness alongside the rock organ and droning bluesy riff work.

While getting the job done in the frenetic and solidly structured departments has been a staple of Pell's 90s output as emulated here, there are naturally a healthy supply of serene ballads and engaging epic works to sate those who like a bit of Rainbow's "Stargazer" and Sabbath's "Heaven And Hell" to go with the courses of "Kill The King" and "Lady Evil". Offering up what is arguably their most iconic ballad aside from "Oceans Of Time", "Forever Angel" takes an extremely straightforward structure and a minimalist guitar line and turns it into a glorious nod to motorcycle enthusiasts that also mercifully lacks the corny sampled sounds of engines revving up that has been done to death and always ends up overstating the obvious. The more spacey ballad "Sea Of Evil" has a coasting sense of atmospheric splendor that resembles the calm tides of a tranquil sea, in contrast to the more moving watery sound presented in "Sailing Away" (ironic how this album has more overt references to seafaring adventure than the album with a title suggesting such exploits). But as with most of ARP's output, the high points are the rocking epics in Dio-era Sabbath homage "Legions Of Hell" (an all but full on modernized clone of "Heaven And Hell" that's even more overt than Hammerfall's "At The End Of The Rainbow" and Dream Evil's "Crusader's Anthem") and the crushing semi-ballad turned riff machine and honorary title track "Take The Crown".

In the grand scheme of this band's long-running and still very active career, as especially the Johnny Gioeli era that has encompassed the past 20 years, Kings And Queens represents one of the highest towers in ARP's grand Gothic palace. It might not be the first album that one should hear by this band considering the overt superiority that Oceans Of Time and Black Moon Pyramid hold over the entire lot (though this album was this reviewer's first LP bearing Pell's skull-obsessed insignia), but it's an absolute must for any fan of this band or the retro-80s music that they've been playing since the closing hours of said decade. Perhaps the best way to understand this album is as an iconic 80s album stuck out of time, embodying all of the cliches that defined the melodic rock and metal of the day, and often taking them to their logical conclusion, yet doing so in such a tasteful and effective manner that it could win over a good number of cynics who think that anything from said decade that was lighter than Metallica is not worth their time. In a sense, it could all but be the album that Dio might have recorded with Black Sabbath had things not gone to hell during the post-production phase of the Live Evil album, or what Rainbow might have done circa 1981-83 had Ritchie Blackmore not been bitten by the commercial rock bug. The crown may be up for grabs, but the dynastic reign of Axel Rudi Pell continues to thrive, and no earthquake or invading onslaught can hope to topple their mighty castle.

(Rewritten on July 24th, 2019)