Mystic Prophecy-Ravenlord

Massacre
2012

Long running act Mystic Prophecy deliver their seventh album Ravenlord. These guys seem to get different labels thrown at them at various times. I have even seen melodic death metal slapped on them, but overall I'd say they are on the heavy end of the power metal spectrum. The new album is somewhat different for these guys. Songs like the title track,Eyes of the devil, Wings of destiny and Hollow Man are all rather basic and revolve more around melodies than heaviness. They are fairly not, but not terribly engaging. I prefer songs like "Endless fire" and "Cross of lies" with some galloping riffs and a real edge to them. This is where this band has always excelled in my opinion. They have always had a knack for charging ahead with a cutting attack first and melodic bits second. I didn't look at the track listing before playing the album and was surprised when the last track came as I instantly recognized it as a cover of Ozzy's 1988 song "Miracle Man". Kind of an interesting choice because although a solid song it's not exactly classic Ozzy. They play it pretty much note for note with little variation, but still I did appreciate it for not being a typical choice to cover. "Ravenlord" has a whole was a slight letdown. Certainly not their best album and I felt like they didn't exactly challenge themselves or their listeners with some of these selections. Which is a shame because they are capable of doing so much more than this.