Queen of the World

I've been fooled by countless bands claiming to be inspired by Iron Maiden, only to find they sound nothing like them. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me thirty-four times... it's going to be shame on them eventually. Palass made such a claim with their debut album Queen of the World, but to my amazement, they actually manage to sound somewhat reminiscent of my favorite Iron Maiden album, Killers. That is, if Paul Di'Anno spoke English as a second language and had just woken up from having his wisdom teeth removed.

I may have telegraphed my disdain for Palass vocalist Daniel Duvieusart a bit early, but how could I not? He sounds like William Hung. Some proactive measures to assuage this would've been to give him easier melodies to follow, or perhaps just to lower his volume in the mixing, but alas, melodies demand an expansive range, and his ill-starred attempts at following them are loud enough to cause crackles and pops in the recording. But trust me when I say this - you'll want to get used to it.

Present throughout Queen of the World is brilliant musicianship from guitarists Eddy Hacik and Rémy Vanheuverzwyn. From the expertly controlled galloping riffs in 'Devil Girl' and 'Love is Life' to the delicious harmonized leads in 'The Mutant' and 'The End', their contributions are an almost constant source of melodic metal satisfaction genuinely akin to classic Iron Maiden. I wish 'The Mutant' was a complete instrumental, as the rapport between guitarists puts me in the mind of the untouchable 'Transylvania'.

It's not fair to say the talent of drummer Alain Capitte and bassist Michel Bellance are being undermined or under-appreciated, though. Song structures never allow Bellance to prove himself with any unique or memorable bass riffs - most of the time you're lucky if you can even hear him. As for Capitte, he's a decent drummer able to keep a good, deliberate rhythm especially in the slower tracks, but he too never gets the chance to add much in the way of flair.

And of the eight tracks featured in this LP, there are two that needed a lot more polish across the board. 'The Last Friday' sounds in every way like Bryan Adams, and 'Heroes', a poignant ballad regarding casualties of war, is piledriven into an endless ocean of cheese by the melodramatic vocals. Since Duvieusart is at his absolute worst here, I feel it necessary to mention Palass actually acknowledged this criticism at the time. Later that same year, they changed their name to Rescue and re-recorded all of their songs from scratch with a new singer.

He's even worse.

Standout tracks:
The Mutant, Devil Girl

Related listening:
Tarantula - Tarantula
Reaction - Insane

*Written for the 10th MA Virgin Reviews Challenge

I’ve been meaning to review this album by Palass for about 2 years now – outrageous. I’ve listened to it a lot over the years – here and there mostly, and it’s one of those records I have mixed feelings about – I like it one month, then kinda don’t like it another. What I can say is that it sounds a lot more punchy on a decent set of speakers, though Palass isn’t exactly what you’d call a heavy band by most people’s standards. I’ve always compared this band to the French melodic metal act ‘Fisc’, they share somewhat of a similar direction in sound – though I quite care for Fisc – they’re a band that’s been with me for a while and sometimes their melodic, though quite thrilling hard rock/heavy metal sound is just what I need. Coming back to Palass, you could say I do like this album in the same vein, but it’s certainly weaker than the albums by Fisc.


What permeates this album is the mixture of strong, heavier moments, such as in the opening ‘Queen of the World’ and weaker moments like in it’s follower ‘Last Friday Night’. You see, this band’s guitars are largely the high point. The intro gitar section to the opening title track is solid – very clean, crisp melodies, pleasing to the ear and brought through by excellent production. The problem is – the lyric writing and vocals that hold this one – for example in the aforementioned ‘The Last Friday’. Allow me to elaborate. Daniel Duvieusart has that whingey, misprounced high, whiney Germanic tone which is common in vocalists in countries like Germany, The Low Countries, and Denmark. Sure, it’s fine sometimes, perhaps in smaller doses, and in certain types of msic, and perhaps varies in the tolerances of different people, but here it just holds the whole thing back. Thick, great guitar melodies are found throughout a lot of the album; ‘Love is Life’ features an excellent, full-feeling lineup of guitars – almost like a mid ‘80s Iron Maiden single, but again the lyrics, phrasing, and delivery of Daniel Duvieusart hold it back for sure.

Like similar band Mad Max, these guys were held back due to a substandard vocalist. The same could be said for Abraxas on their first album. Unlike the two examples though, Palass never rectified this problem; Mad Max sacked their vocalist and went on to sound awesome (see ‘Stormchild’), while Palass will be remembered (?) for this effort – which sounds very promising, with excellent guitar passages and solos abundant throughout (‘Devil Girl’ is amazing in this regard), but is rife with rather lame lyrics and delivery. In some tracks, like ‘Devil Girl’ for instance Daniel Duvieusart is more tolerable, and in any case, the strength of the guitars and production is so good you kind of forget about it. Anyway, he holds the band back to the level of Trance, where they should be on the level of Fisc.

Not a bad album by any means – some cool songs, and some average ones that needed better lyrics and most especially vocals. If you like the melodic Ero stuff of the 80s, then it’s worth checking out. Fans of stuff like Trance, Presence, Picture, Maltese Falcon, Bullet etc should be able to enjoy it. Plus I really like the bands logo and cover art, not to mention Eddy Hacik & Remy Vanheuverzwyn on guitars really contribute to this record. I’ve heard much, much worse.

-DeathRiderDoom