Patrick Hemer-More than meets the eye

Nightmare
2011

Patrick Hemer is perhaps best known for his work with Horizon. Here on his solo album he teams up with drummer Tom Wagner and keyboardist David Casanova. Hemer shows his new-classical style and works it into songs in the genres of melodic metal, power metal and prog-metal. The songs work in both showcasing Hemer's playing talents and and the tracks are well composed to boot. I was a fearing a major wank fest full of nothing but self-indulgent solos and little else. However that's not the case. Instead the songs are well written plus they vary in pace and tones as evidenced by tracks like the heavy pounding of "Panem Et Circenses" and the bouncy "Legend in your own mind". Don't worry, Hemer opens up with the shredding on every song. Much like the main riffs of the songs, his solos vary in style and tempo as well. Fortunately he knows a thing or two about control and restraint too. So we get some blistering fretwork and some great use of tones to boot. There are eleven tracks, but Hemer churns out enough riffs for two albums full of material yet I never felt overwhelmed. This isn't always my favorite type of metal, but this album is very well done and has plenty to offer for fans of different kinds of metal.