At the Gates of a New World

Kelly Simonz might sound familiar to those who follow the neoclassical scene. He is one of the most over the top Yngwie fanatics, practically nobody could compete with him on that front. On YouTube, he has a livestream that lasts several hours, and I shit you not, he nails 100 Malmsteen songs. But can he write his music just as well as he can cover pieces by the master?

Evidently, he can, but this won't be the record that displays his best efforts. Despite Kelly's best intentions, this record turned out to be very confusing and offputting, filled with questionable decisions through and through. The album is off to one of the best starts I've heard, opening with a long intro that gets you so pumped up, so ready to break through even the thickest of brick walls that you can barely resist pressing the "next" button.

Then, we get into the best song of them all, the title song. The sheer power and crushing energy that exploded in my face as the band kicks off the record with screeching tires sent me flying across the room. Holy fucking shit, that song is heavy. It is heavy, it is blindingly fast, but it isn't aggressive. It is still very sophisticated and archaic, like the neoclassical style it's written in. Those pounding tremolo-picked progressions, mixed with Yama's almost opera singer-like voice create a power metal hurricane so strong that it even leaves a decent amount of thrash metal behind in terms of rawness and brutality. It is a truly exceptional piece, both in terms of heaviness, and compositional creativity. BUT... Man, do you really have to keep it going for more than 7 minutes? Do you really have to repeat the chorus that many times? The final more or less minute and a half repeats the chorus that's very long and already has been repeated about 4 times during the song. I get it, man, I understand that we're going (in the spirit of the song) "Through The Gate of A New World". "Through The Gate Of A New World". "Through The Gate Of A New World". "Through The Gate Of A New World". I really do.

But even with the countless repetitions, that song is an unbelievably powerful and earthquake-inducing mountain of endless energy in the form of notes. It tops the rest of the record with ease, which I hate to tell you, isn't all that impressive. Most especially not after a song like the title song. When you set the tone with a song like THAT, one expects to at least keep the heroic energy, the epic atmosphere, and while the speed may not remain (it shouldn't anyway, not for several songs in a row), at least the tone remains archaic and powerful. Unfortunately, it doesn't.

What happens however is that the record gets invaded by a bunch of mellow, generic, whiny love ballads, like that'd be a logical follow-up after the colossal title song. Songs like "In The Name Of Love", "Immortal Love", "Stay With Me Forever" are all examples of underwhelming, lukewarm, slow, quiet and powerless pieces that do away with even remnants of that mountain-leveling power "At The Gates Of A New World" presented. They aren't necessarily bad, but they are extremely cheesy, and to have songs that are dripping with cheese on the same record that features probably the single most explosive neoclassical speed anthem feels horribly wrong. Maybe one song could've been pulled off as the final song of the record without much irritation, but there is an abundance of (4) songs that fall in that category, which is more than way too many.

To be fair to Kelly Simonz & Co., the album features some decent metal tunes besides the title song. For example, "Bound For Glory" is excellent, melodic speed metal, and that song does return to the spirit of the title song for a brief moment, while "Nobody Is The Same" takes you into a more oldschool, almost Alcatrazz-esque vibe, supported by the rock 'n roll-sounding keyboard layers. These pieces are the heaviest after the dominating title song, and essentially the only highlights, maybe along with "AttackK by Zero", because the rest are all songs of the kind I mentioned in the above paragraph.

It's saddening to see this record score the way it does, but it's not endurant. It delivers that heavy, ballsy energy that it sets the mood for in the beginning very inconsistently. That energy and vibe is constantly being interrupted by love ballads that are way too soft for even heavy metal standards, forget power metal. Still, even though only half the record carries that fire, that half does it so well that this record still manages to rise above the median of the genre.