Charred walls of the damned

Metal Blade
2011

So here is another entry from the semi-all-star band that includes Richard Christy, Tim “Ripper” Owens, Steve DiGiorgio, and Jason Suecof. Actually I took a pass on the first album probably due to bad experiences with other so called supergroups of the past like Contraband and Damn Yankees, but I decided to check this one out. Really it's better than I figured it would be, At it's heart it's classic style metal with progressive and power metal elements swirling a little around the edges. Ripper Owens has definitely found a band where his talents are a good fit which hasn't been the case in his career. He doesn't extend his voice all the way too often, but he is certainly consistent and sounds very comfortable on every track The playing is overall extremely tight. There are a few overdone swirls on the guitars at times, but I'll just chalk that up to excitement. If there is a fault to this album it's just that there were times where I thought they could have pushed the boundaries of the songs a little more. There are a couple of tracks that are fairly predictable. That could be an assignment for their next album though and it's one I think they could easily accomplish.