Retroactive
2008
The Seventh Power is made up of vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Bill Menchen (Final Axe), bassist Rod Reasner and drummer Robert Sweet (Stryper). So much like the debut from this Christina metal outfit we get plenty of mid-tempo, moderately heavy metal along the lines of late 80's-early 90's Ozzy. Like the debut they don't take a whole lot of chances however the guitars of Menchen are a good bit heavier on the new album as he reaches down and cranks out more than a few gems. The rhythm section is severely solid and the production has them exactly where they should be to compliment the guitar. They still don't take as many chances as I was hoping for, but there is a little more musical variation on this disc and that is much appreciated. I still very much give the impression that they could mix it up and vary the pace more if they wanted to and that would help even more. Overall the music made enough of an impression, but I had some definite issues. Menchen's vocals sounds like Ozzy... if he was singing into a cup. Now this is due to the effects that put on the vocals and that would be fine for a song or two, but it seems to be the standard here. To me this dampens the overall sound and that's a shame because the music is fairly heavy and could use some vocals that complimented that approach. The vocals were largely the same on the first album so either I question the motives of this approach or I am lead to think they chose it because Menchen's voice wasn't strong enough without effects. Now I have no idea which of those is correct, but I do know that the vocals could have been better. Still I will return to this one again just because of the music.
http://www.theseventhpower.com/theseventhpower.html
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