Pretty Maids-Pandemonium

Frontiers
2010

The first time I heard this band was well over twenty years ago with "Future World" back in 1987. A fellow metal fan in high school (yes, I really am that old) had it on vinyl and taped it for me. What I liked most about them then was their ability to mix in melodic pieces with heavy rhythms. They did it in a manner where the two parts worked together and complimented each other. This band is still going and they have been through some different musical approaches over the year. Pandemonium hears the band mixing metal with AOR into a form of melodic metal that again gets the best out of both worlds for Pretty Maids. Sometimes they blend the styles and on other songs the approaches are more seperate. Either way they handle it all well enough to get the most out of their efforts. Their style hasn't changed all that much and it fact the years seemed to have made their finished project much smoother around the edges than it has been in the past. Melodic metal is a style that can have some problems as some bands get stuck in the sap and lose sight of the metal part, but Pretty Maids avoid that trap and keep eveything going forward. This year has been a fine year for veteran metal/hard rock acts with solid releases from Scorpions, Ratt, Treat, Krokus and Armored Saint. Now we can add Pretty Maids to that list as well.