Immortal Soul

This album has been getting rave reviews around the net and the score as of this writing equals that of the legendary Thundersteel. Can anyone really say with a straight face that this is on par with Thundersteel? In my opinion this album merely heralds a cessation of the general decline of this band as the last few have been fairly weak. I would likely recommend Nightbreaker through Inishmore (or Fire Down Under) for someone that wants to expand beyond the Tony Moore albums. Just because people want to see the successor to Privilege of Power does not mean that Immortal Soul fits the bill.

Lets start with the supposed catalyst for this return to form, Tony Moore. Tony Moore's vocals have not aged well at all. He doesn't hit the really high notes any more, but this is to be expected. Far more disappointing is how thin his voice sounds. Without the vigor of youth his voice takes on a reedy, slightly annoying characteristic. But metal is littered with plenty of mediocre singers that get by with great material. Sadly, Moore is not on top of his game here. Take for instance the homage to Johnny's Back from Thundersteel, Still Your Man. It cleverly manages to evoke the song with some similar melodies but in my mind it just brings to the fore how much better that song was. On Thundersteel, Moore could carry a song like Johnny's Back and that is, unfortunately, no longer the case.

As for the rest, it's really not that different from what they have been doing for the last few, barring a few exceptions I will get mention later. Crawling is a frank reminder of why this band should never write slow songs. Fall Before Me and Sins of the Father have some decent refrains that sound slightly obnoxious and repetitive when song by Tony Moore, but are otherwise good. The second half of the album is pretty innocuous in general and really cements my opinion that anyone that thinks this is new and exciting for Riot needs to listen to the last few albums. Still, throughout the album the leads and solos are mostly excellent, but this is Riot and they have never disappointed in this arena.

That leaves really two songs that are a cut above anything they have done in a decade. The opener is the blistering speed metal that you can't really mess up and Riot executes it well. Then there is Wings Are For Angels which really does sound like a lost Thundersteel cut. The chorus is the best on the album and draws from the same well as Flight of the Warrior or On Wings of Eagles. I would pay good money to use a time machine and have a young Tony Moore sing this song as that is really the only thing missing.

So again I must repeat that this is not Thundersteel 2 or anything approaching that. It is however their best album since Inishmore and that is coming from a fan of the DiMeo era.