I Walk Among You

People seem to not see much purpose for this release because it is re-recordings of existing and very recent songs with no change other than a different singer. While there might be something to this in itself, the fact that part of a concept series was performed with a radically different sounding vocalist should not be ignored. Much as was the case when previous vocalist Tim Owens re-recorded material from the “Something Wicked This Way Comes” release, a taste of what an earlier chapter in any epic would sound like with a replacement singer eases what is obviously a large sound transition.

It can not be stressed enough that Matt Barlow, although near equally competent at wailing in the upper vocal stratosphere, sounds absolutely nothing like Owens. The comparison to Paul Stanley that I often make doesn’t so much apply to a stylistic similarity between the Kiss front man and Barlow, but with the seemingly identical tendency of bellowing out every single note like an attempt to entertain an arena of fans with no PA system. Even during the quietest section of “The Clouding”, the vocal delivery fills up your ears with a near overdose of testosterone injected heaviness. The downside to this is that Barlow will often dwarf what is going on around him, not to mention it loses its effect after prolonged listening.

The new song from the upcoming full length album “The Crucible of Man” is thematically a dead ringer for the previous part of this saga, although it doesn’t stand as a great indicator for the riff tendencies of the up coming release. It stays pretty much in mid-tempo land and relies mostly on atmosphere; groove oriented riffing, and a pretty solid vocal delivery. Barlow isn’t pushing his high range very much here, unlike the two re-recorded songs, which is one area where the full length may not prove very interesting as the vocal delivery carried most of the non-speed metal songs on “Framing Armageddon”.

While most may say this is a pointless release, which was also said by some about “Overture of the Wicked”, the primary point of any release is the enjoyment factor and this consistently delivers. Although I personally prefer Owens to Barlow, it is good to see that Barlow has opted not to follow through on his plans to dignify the corrupt US government with his services as a police officer and has freed himself from the endless media propaganda commanding mindless patriotism which once controlled the entire country, not to mention encouraged some extremely bad propaganda music. But regardless, if you liked “Something Wicked this Way Comes”, this is basically how this listens.

Later submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on September 11, 2008.