The Death of the Artists

I rather enjoyed catching up with Highlord again with ‘Freakin’ Out Of Hell’, so I figured I’d go back and see what I’d missed out on over the years. I listened to ‘When The Aurora Falls...’ a lot back in the day, and thought the stylistic change they made with ‘Medusa’s Coil’ was an interesting turn of events, and I guess it’s a sound they are comfortable with because they’ve stuck to it since. 2009’s ‘The Death Of The Artists’ is their sixth album, and a short one at less than forty minutes, but it gets the job done. Highlord are a good band who know how to craft enjoyable melodic power metal, even when they tone down their more intricate tendencies, and this is their most direct example of that.

This one starts with a nice little ditty called ‘Simple Man’ and I suppose that’s an adequate adjective to describe this album: simple. It’s nine short blasts of Italian power metal with less of a progressive edge than they usually dabble with. It sounds like this album was just jammed out in the rehearsal room without too much thought and recorded quickly to capture the vibe. That’s not a slight on it at all; these tunes are still catchy and crammed with groovy riffs, melodic vocal lines and the odd tricky time change. It’s got a light, breezy feel to it, going for the same sort of traditional metal meets Italian prog-power style of ‘Medusa’s Coil’, only more straightforward and not as memorable. Not to say there aren’t good songs on here, because there are. The title track has the most involved songwriting, I’d say, being a tasty, proggy song with a lot of cool ideas and a catchy refrain. ‘Dance In A Flame’ is a classy double-kicker like their old stuff, with Andrea Marchisio belting out another great chorus. The oddly titled ‘Every Thrash Of Me’ is another immediate banger that gets the blood pumping, and there’s plenty of speed to ‘The Scream’, as well.

It’s not that Highlord can’t be bothered on this album. There’s still a lot of high-pitched singing and sweet melodies to be found, and the production is booming and pro, with a chunky guitar tone and a crisp sound on the kit. It just feels like it was hacked out with little care for fancy theatrics, making it a simpler, plainer take on the modern Highlord sound, and it works perfectly fine for a casual listen. They’ve made better albums for sure, but it’s not bad by any means. A minor work from this fine band.