Killhammer

I know that it´s easy to bash bands such as Mystic Prophecy due to their stereotype lyrics, the striking cover artworks and the more or less light-headed album titles. Admittedly, they are painfully true to the metal cliches and the corny song titles have been heard a thousand times before. As a consequence, this means that the band offers once again an overdose of silly titles, but "Children of the Damned" takes the cake. Thank God, "The Number of the Beast" is missing. Of course, it is almost superfluous to mention, but suitable heavy metal lyrics require more than the unending combination of the relevant buzzwords. (The same goes for intelligent review headlines, but I think that the creators of "Killhammer" will like this one...)

In case of Mystic Prophecy, the lyrics definitely leave significant room for optimization. But who cares? The crucial thing is naturally the music itself. With a view to their previous efforts, the compositions are based on the motto "more of the same". The steadfast five-piece does not move forward in a new direction. On a positive note, the members of Mystic Prophecy prove themselves as reliable partner for their followers. Therefore, they present ten new heavy / power metal compositions which are equipped with a polished yet heavy and professional sound. Unfortunately, the album also includes an Ozzy cover. It goes without saying that this is one of the cover versions nobody ever asked for. But let´s focus on their self-written material which starts with the powerful and representative title track. Pure heavy metal riffing is slowly but surely leading to a simple yet concise chorus. This may not sound very exceptional. Nevertheless, a fully convincing start and a kind of statement at the same time: hey dude, you are listening to Mystic Prophecy and you get exactly what you have expected.

Therefore, it is no wonder that the majority of the songs follows a similar line. Only a few tracks sound a bit more melodic. In contrast to that, "Armies of Hell" can be seen as the legitimate successor of rapid songs like "Evil Empires", their thrashy highlight from "Savage Souls". Consequently the main characteristics of the song are its up-tempo parts and the higher dose of aggression. (As a marginal note, the bridge of this fiery eruption reminds me strongly of the bridge of Testament´s "More than Meets the Eye". Well, let´s say this is pure coincidence...) However, "Armies of Hell" and the similar, intensely sounding "300 in Blood" are among the best songs of the album. This applies to "Kill the Beast" and "Hate Black" as well. The first one surprises with more or less ambitious lyrics, because the band makes a political statement in its very own way ("killing bastard dead Marxist"). The latter provides a flattening riffing in combination with a discreet oriental melody.

One may regret that this output does not have any dirty underground tendencies. But don´t be concerned. That does not mean that it sounds commercial or light. It´s a collection of typical, mostly vigorous heavy metal tracks, some of them are good, some of them are fairly unobtrusive. Conversative song structures meet a modern production. The formula of Mystic Prophecy is not as mystic as it seems.

As petty as it is to quip over things like album titles and song track lists, Mystic Prophecy is really getting into kind of a rut with these album titles. I mean, is “combining two ‘bad ass’ sounding things together” really the best summation of your creative wit? Fireangel, Ravenlord and now Killhammer. Not to mention the redundant song titling: Two songs with “Kill,” two with “Hell,” two with “Fire” and plenty of generic metal clichés parboiled into a stew of mediocrity from which there is no return – lots of blood, damnation, blackness, angels and warriors. They don’t miss a single one. None of this would matter if this was good at all, but this is pretty much devoid of any kind of spark or fire.

It’s just Mystic Prophecy going through the motions. It’s perfectly listenable power metal – plenty of German power metal stomping, plenty of gruff choruses. I wish I could say the riffs were better, but they’re basically just dumb-chunking at this point. Occasionally they kick up a nice thrashy gallop, but even so, it’s all very passé. The whole thing is mired in the ‘50% thrashy power metal, 50% slick hard rock’ thing this genre has become famous for. The riffs are heavy as a bag of bricks and slick as hell, but there’s just so little of interest. Frankly, they were more interesting with Gus G, years behind them now, than they are here. Bands shouldn't regress this much in songwriting after initially showing such promise, but there you go.

The basic atmosphere they seem to be going for is ‘sweat soaked innards of your neighborhood gymnasium,’ as pretty much all these songs are built on big, stupid rhythms made for lifting weights to. RD Liapakis sounds okay, but pretty tired for all that, and the band seems to be unwilling to change up their vocal lines at all – these are pretty much identical to any of the ones on the last two albums. Here and there you get some semi-harsh vocals, but bleh. They add nothing of value to the songs. The one exception is “Warriors of the Northern Sea,” which is actually a killer song. But other than that, you can probably skip this and not be any worse off in life.

Mystic Prophecy have been slugging it out for years now, and I’m one of the guys who preferred their output prior to the exodus of everyman Gus G. In saying that though, I can certainly appreciate the quality of their last few releases, and above all appreciate their no compromising attitude to putting out their brand of down and dirty, German power metal.

Unfortunately I’d have to say Killhammer is the weakest Mystic Prophecy album I’ve heard to date. Some of this is down to R.D. Liapakis’ vocals, and if I’m being completely honest I never found him that impressive of a singer to begin with. His vocal lines here are decidedly sweaty and middling, failing to inspire or beg for a sing-along, and his husky delivery grates more than anything these days.

Luckily the guitars are still killer, and really the only reason I ever went to Mystic Prophecy for anything in the first place. Tracks like “Kill The Beast” and “Armies Of Hell” house those pummelling, German style heavy metal riffs which are hard not to head-bang along with. The lead guitars have certainly increased in quality since I last remember too, and I’d say that aspect of the sound was at least on par with the Gus days.

The fact of the matter here though, is that there just isn’t anything like “Burning Bridges”, “Calling From Hell” or even “Master Of Sins”. Despite the album housing some enjoyable riffs, for the most part everything on offer here pales in comparison to prior output. There’s a lot more in the way of mid-paced material, and it makes songs like the title track and “Hate Black” a chore to sit through at times. The performances in themselves are decent enough, particularly the guitars as mentioned, but the material just isn’t all that great.

On the whole, I was expecting an album entitled Killhammer to be a little more killing. This is solid enough, and die-hard fans of the band will no doubt find a lot to love, but those looking for an intense, catchy, and most importantly heavy release might be best off looking elsewhere, or towards the band’s prior output. It’s a shame to have come down hard on a band I’ve supported for years, but Mystic Prophecy can’t quite cut it here.

Originally written for http://www.metal-observer.com