Ten More Tales...

Formed in 1995 in England, Balance of Power play a fairly distinctive blend of melodic power metal, one where neoclassical metal riffs in the style of Rainbow and Malmsteen coexist with ultramelodic vocal hooks typical of AOR and arena rock bands like Journey, Asia, Bon Jovi and Toto. It’s a slightly unusual mix that injects a certain freshness into a genre, that of power metal, which by the late 1990s was overcrowded with dozens of Stratovarius clones all sounding exactly the same as everyone else. Ten More Tales of Grand Illusion is Balance of Power’s third full-length album, the second following the mini line-up revolution that took place after the band released their debut album When the World Falls Down in 1997. Original guitarist Paul Curtis and singer Tony Ritchie were replaced by Pete Southern and US-based vocalist Lance King, respectively. The lineup on this album is completed by drummer Lionel Hicks (who also produced the record), bassist Chris Dale and guitarist Bill Yates, with session musician James Walsh playing keyboards.

Musically, Ten More Tales ... alternates between light easy-listening tracks with plenty of catchy melodic hooks (“Day Breaker”; “Under the Spell”) and more muscular numbers, where the classic metal influences are stronger (“About to Burn”; the Priestesque title-track). Often the two style coexist in the space of the same song, as on the excellent “Prisoner of Pride” which moves between an exquisitely Rainbowesque riff in the verse and a gorgeous AOR melody in the chorus. There are also a few ballads where Balance of Power show traces of yet another of their influences, that of Queensryche (“Savage Tears”; “Blind Man”). This is partly due to King’s voice that can at times sound remarkably similar to Geoff Tate’s, but also to the emotionally powerful atmosphere of these songs that are stuck in a beautiful place between grandeur and melancholy, like many Queensryche's classics. The variety of styles and influences that are injected into each song is undoubtedly one of the strengths of the album, which sounds fresh, interesting and dynamic, and leaves no room for boredom.

The five musicians put in strong performances throughout and the band sound very tight as a result. The guitar parts are excellent. Southern’s riffs are powerful and melodic at the same time, in the best tradition of guitar greats such as Blackmore and Malmsteen. The rhythm section keeps things simple, favoring groove over intricacies. This works well as it allows the guitar work to shine. The keyboard interjections are used sparingly to add complexity to the arrangements. While the keys will be more dominant on later albums, on Ten More Tales … the guitars have the lion’s share of the music. On this excellent basis Lance King’s voice is the proverbial icing on the cake. The man has an impressive vocal range and sounds comfortable both when he uses his mid-range and when he climbs up towards the highest notes. He also manages to be expressive throughout his range, a quality that is relatively uncommon among power metal singers (I lost count of the number of sterile high-pitched squeals I had to endure while listening to power metal albums of the time). King's strong performance is one of the highlights of this album, as of all the other Balance of Power’s records where he performed.

Despite strong performances and interesting musical ideas, Ten More Tales … isn’t the strongest album Balance of Power have released in their career. Its biggest limit, in my view, is that some of the material is somewhat lackluster. It seems to me that on this album Balance of Power are still looking for the perfect formula to write the music they hear in their head. At times, everything falls into place and then we have first-rate numbers like “Prisoner of Pride”, “Savage Tears”, “About to Burn” and the title-track. But elsewhere things drag a little. The ballad “Blind Man” is overlong and tepid, its 6:51 minutes seemingly lasting forever. “The Darker Side”, yet another ballad, is too pedestrian and saccharine. Tracks like “Under the Spell”, “Under Innocence Wing” and “Sins of the World” are fairly unremarkable, lacking the melodic punch of the album’s better tracks.

Overall, the quality of the material on Ten More Tales … is too heterogeneous to allow me to rate the record higher than this. Nevertheless, this is a good album that will please fans of the more melodic side of metal. It confirms Balance of Power as a “band to watch” and Lance King’s as one of the most talented singers in the metal arena. But if you are new to the band, I recommend that you start from their next album, Perfect Balance, which is where Balance of Power's great promise will come to complete fruition.

British Christian prog-power metal band ahead, ahoy! Looks like just my cup of tea, so to speak. As it goes, Balance of Power’s Ten More Tales… may not be nearly as flowery as Sonata Arctica or Wildpath; or as happy-go-lucky as Edenbridge or Keeper-era Helloween; or anywhere close to being as soulless, commercial and offensive as Dragonforce; but for all that it’s certainly on the lighter, catchier, happier, keyboards-saturated side of power metal, with a definite neoclassical twist (particularly on the arpeggio-ridden ‘Under Innocence Wing / Sins of the World’). Not really a bad album by any stretch of the imagination, but not groundbreaking at all, either.

Ten More Tales… actually does start out with a memorable opening track, ‘Daybreaker’ – there’s a lot to like just in that rising opening power-metal guitar riff and machine-gun drum line. Sure, the vocals are laden with saccharine sunshine and happiness, and end up reaching the twisted-balls tenor range, but for all that it is mercifully short, punchy and powerful on an album. They manage to keep up the interest and the pacing with ‘Prisoner of Pride’, but not too far beyond that… somewhere in between ‘Savage Tears’ and ‘Blind Man’ is when the mid-tempo progressive drag syndrome takes a turn for the terminal and I start to zone out. Once again, it isn’t that it’s bad music; on the contrary, it’s all still very much there. The problem is, it’s just easily subsumed into the background. Something about those vocals kind of bugs me, though, in a familiar sort of way. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll think of it later…

I did actually enjoy ‘Sins of the World’; along with ‘Daybreaker’ and ‘About to Burn’ it’s actually one of the stronger tracks on the album. In spite of the prominence that is lent to the keyboards, it actually brings back some of the energy and the power that the album started with. You have some more than halfway-decent bass-and-drums work leading up to the lengthy and awesomely neoclassical guitar solo; finishes off well with the speed and energy it started with crashing to a halt. Certainly one of the album’s high points. ‘The Darker Side’: la-la-la la la-la la oooooh + piano. An all-keyboards-and-vocals ballad to break all the momentum before the album closes out with ‘Ten More Tales of Grand Illusion’ – one of the longer tracks on the album about whose length I actually don’t care, as it manages to be quite solid and truly progressive throughout, though once again, those vocals…

… Wait. I just remembered what the tight high-tenor vocal harmonies on ‘Savage Tears’, ‘Under the Spell’ and ‘About to Burn’ remind me of. It’s CSN(Y); it’s the fucking Byrds! Seriously, Balance of Power is trying to pull off the same kind of lengthy three-chord harmonic supports and carry-overs that are the bread-and-butter (or the tie-dye-and-weed?) of the folk-rock musicians of the kind my parents listen to. Flower metal, shit – these guys just added a whole new layer of meaning to the phrase. Not that I’m saying a metal cover of ‘Ohio’ or ‘Woodstock’ couldn’t conceivably be awesome, and with these kinds of vocals it could potentially be pulled off well, but seriously, dudes. Show some self-awareness, damn it. This was the same sort of shit that Spın̈al Tap was taking the piss out of with ‘Listen to the Flower People’.

In general, I get the feeling that on a number of these tracks, Balance of Power are willing to allow the keyboards do most of the heavy lifting on songs that would otherwise be fairly ‘thin’ – though, in that, they’re no different from about 80% of all the other European power metal acts out there. Can’t fault the production at all, and the mixing actually gives the drums some well-deserved prominence; the drum playing was one of those things I appreciated even on the draggy tracks.

Last word on this album – it’s by no means a bad album (which puts it head and shoulders above most of what I’ve heard from some noted commercially-successful power metal acts I could name *coughEpicacough*), but as far as power metal goes in general, it’s pretty run-of-the-mill.

Now pardon me while I go listen to some Falconer…

14 / 20

Ten More Tales of Grand Illusion is very nearly a complete album. The instrumentation is superb, the production is flawless, and the songs are so catchy and well written, its kind of hard not to enjoy at least one song on this album.

Daybreaker is the only song I've heard previously before buying the album. This song has a very power metal like chorus, but a rather dark and doomy bridge, makes for one of the best tracks on the album.

Prisioner of Pride isn't quite as good as some of the others, its not lyrically anything special really, but the chorus does test the singer's range. His high note is right up there with Geoff Tate.

Savage Tears is absolutely beautiful. Very soulful lyrics and nice, but not over complecated instrumentation. Along with Daybreaker, one of the best tracks on the album.

Under the Spell IMO is really nothing special. Once again very well sang and played, but lacks that something that makes it stick with you.

Blind Man is along the lines of Savage Tears, a bit more positive in the lyrics. Back vocals on this track are what makes it exceptional. Without them, it'd probably be just mediocre.

The next track About to Burn is by far my favorite track on the album. Mindblowing intro, followed by very catchy lyrics and a great riff throughout. Chorus and bridge part here are absolutely phenomenal. The guitar outro here displays some great technical guitar work and amazing sounds better than the intro!

Sins of the world is my least favorite track. Personally I think it sounds similar to some of Stryper's work. For further information refer to Under the Spell.

The Darker Side is a piano ballad with sounds of thunder in the background. Its a pretty melodic song, its very relaxing, perhaps the most relaxing on the album. It kind of falls in the vein of an 80s power ballad, so if you don't like that, then you'll probably skip this one.

Ten More Tales Of Grand Illusion is another one of the better tracks on the album. The majority of this song is sung rather high and has pretty nice guitar work as well. The bridge to this song should actually be the chorus. It seems its going to lead into an early-era Helloween type song, but it slightly disappoints, since the chorus is simply singing the name of the song.

I'm definately going to buy more from Balance of Power. They have a unique sound that doesn't come out sounding awkward. I'm very surprised that they haven't achieved higher status.