Breaking the Chains

What do you get when you combine the simplicity of AC/DC with the distortion, riffage, attitude, & vocals of mid-period Iron Maiden? You get this Pegazus release, by far their best Metal offering to date.

This is one of best Power Metal albums of 1999 if not the best. The guitars, while almost sounding dated, are heavy and melodic. The trademarked galloping riffs, clean leads, the solos (if they can so be called, perhaps more like glorified leads) all fit well. The bass doesn’t do anything amazing but the drums sound great. All in all, this is a very epic release.

The production and song writing are excellent as well. The vocals are perhaps the best part of the instrumentation however as Danny Cecati proves that he is certainly one of the better Power/Progressive Metal vocalists out there today. (Sadly, this is also his last release with the band).

The music is very much in the early 80’s mold, bringing to mind Maiden (of course) and perhaps some Priest. These guys aren’t sound-a-likes or clones; this is rather original music on display here. This is a fun record and an instant classic. All the songs can stand on their own or in a group. There is also a great cover of ‘Helloween’s classic ‘A Little Time’.

This cd is worthy of your money and absolutely recommended for any/all Power Metal addicts, this album doesn’t disappoint.

This is one of the most inconsistent albums I've got. Half of it is blazing heavy fucking metal in its finest form, and half of it is so incredibly boring that you just want to listen to some Backstreet Boys.
The guitarwork is catchy and well done, usually a bit over midpaced. The soloing is mostly amazing, with some amazing heavy metal stuff.
The vocals fit in well. Vocalist Danny Cecati don't have your usual very high and on the edge of girly voice. He can go up high sometimes, but doesn't sound that girly like other power metal singers occasionally do.
The drumming is catchy and flows along nicely, and so does the bass.
Some may get turned off from this band because of the lyrics on songs such as Metal Forever, Breaking the Chains and The Crusade, as they deal with the Manowar kind of themes: War and tr00 metal. Not all songs do though, we have the incredibly silly Chariot of the Gods, which I don't understand if it is about Area 51, the meaning of life or if there is life in space. Very confusing, and very dumb too.
This isn't the most original band ever, with the metal and war lyrics and all. Another sign of this is that I think they have managed to cram in more metal clichés in their album cover than any other band in a very long time: To include a mythological creature like Pegasus is very cliché, the magic rays encircling it's legs, the frosty northern terrain, the thunder in the sky, and of course the half naked women.
Back to the music. This could've been rated something like 90/100 if they had only done what they do best: Pure heavy metal anthems. But when they try to be original and "epic" by doing songs like Chariot of the Gods, they just sound incredibly forced and poor, and the attempts of being different are evident all over, ruining what could be a masterpiece.


We begin with Metal Forever, a fine example of their pure heavy metal anthems. Midpaced, catchy as fuck, singalong chorus and a blazing solo. This is heavy metal like it should be played.

Second is The Crusade, which is a quite long war song with a somewhat epic feeling to it, although this doesn't sound forced at all. The lyrics are generic and not very inventive, but like I said, this is not one of the most original bands in history, and the lyrics fit the song very well. More midpaced, catchy riffs, cool chorus but less singalong based than the previous, and another killer solo accompanies this song.

Queen Evil is the third track, and it's quite cool, although not as good as the first two. The album stays at a quite midpaced speed, and is still very catchy, but this one is not as straightforward as the two first, and the chorus is a bit more melodic. Not bad at all.

Breaking the Chains next, this is the second best track on the album. Totally fucking amazing heavy metal anthem. The song speeds up into insanity, but the catchiness and straight-forwardness is still there, more evident than ever.
The song has another great singalong chorus and some more blazing guitar soloing. When Pegazus do these heavy metal anthems, there aren't many bands that can withstand their strength.

Next we have Tears of the Angels, and this is where things start going pretty bad. The sheer force, feeling and catchiness of the previous songs is very faint here, and the inspiration is completely gone.
The driving main riff is pretty cool and the guitar solo is excellent, but the rest of the song seems very uninspired.

Now we have Chariot of the Gods, which takes the place for worst song on the album. By far. I've already complained about the dumb lyrics, so I won't do that again. The intro is slow, melodic and not very interesting. It gets heavier and somewhat better after a while, with a cool driving midpaced guitar riff.
But the main riff gets incredibly boring incredibly fast, and the chorus too long and too uninspired, and aside from this the song doesn't offer anything. Well, fine, it does have a very cool guitar solo, but that's it.

Next we have the acoustic instrumental Emerald Eyes. It has some very beautiful melodies, but it's pretty much the same all over, and quickly gets boring.

Now, we have reached the ultimate peak of the album: Bastards of War. The lyrics are amazing, in the vein of Disposable Heroes, and after a cool bass riff we get into the main guitar riff, which is just heavy as all fucking hell!
Mindblowing headbanging material of finest quality. The chorus totally rocks as well; the shouting backing vocals are filled with power and anger.
The slow, melodic bridge is perfectly placed to let you rest before the final assault of chorus hits you.
All in all, this is musical perfection, and this would be the perfect place to close this album...

...Unfortunately, Pegazus decided to add another song; Apache Warriors. This is another terrible song, mostly because of the chorus. Apparently, they are attempting to get an "Indian-feel" to it, but it fails miserably and just comes off as incredibly stupid. The guitar riffs are pretty catchy, and a bit faster than most songs, but overall the song is just very lacking, and not memorable at all.


All in all, the album isn't bad at all, just incredibly inconsistent. We have 4 total fucking killer songs, 1 quite cool song, and 3 songs that are shitty filler. Oh, and a quite mediocre cover of Helloween - A Little Time. The guitars have a rawer edge to them, but songs like that aren't supposed to have a raw edge to them.
Anyway, to sum it up, this album could've been so much more if they had just stuck to doing what they do best.