Axel Rudi Pell – Knights Call Review

To be releasing album number 17 shows you know exactly what you are doing and you know who your fan base is....

Release date: March 23, 2018
Genre: Rock
Label: Steamhammer

 

Line-Up:
 
Johnny Gioeli– Lead and Backing Vocals
Axel Rudi Pell– Lead, Rhythm and Acoustic Guitars
Ferdy Doernberg– Keyboards
Volker Krawczak– Bass
Bobby Rondinelli– Drums

 

Tracklist:

01. The Medieval Overture (Intro)
02. The Wild And The Young
03. Wildest Dreams
04. Long Live Rock
05. The Crusaders Of Doom
06. Truth And Lies
07. Beyond The Light
08. Slaves On The Run
09. Follow The Sun
10. Tower Of Babylon

 

Axel Rudi Pell has been a prolific guitarist and songwriter for over 30 years. He started off as a founder member of the German band Steeler (named after a Judas Priest song) and then left to seek out a successful solo career with his self-titled band. An album release every 2 years has followed and he is massively popular in Europe although not so in the UK and US.

The album starts off on an “old-fashioned” note evoking scenes from medieval history before launching into the superb opener “The Wild And The Young”. The rhythmic guitar and excellent singing on this track are sure to make it into the live show. “Wildest Dreams” continues in the same vein and is a straight ahead rocker with a great solo from Axel and some nice hammond organ touches. “Long Live Rock” is a little too commercial for this reviewer and seems very forced, however, a great solo almost recovered it. “The Crusaders Of Doom” is where this album really accelerates. The song is 8 minutes of everything you would expect from Axel Rudi Pell and the fans will be absolutely loving it. “Truth And Lies” is a nice instrumental track giving the band a chance to shine on their respective instruments. This leads into another epic track “Beyond The Light” which is the slowest song on the album although it does build and build on this reviewers favorite song. The album is suitably completed by the near 10 minute “Tower Of Babylon”.

To be releasing album number 17 shows you know exactly what you are doing and you know who your fan base is. The band is playing brilliantly on this album and I look forward to seeing some of these songs introduced to the live shows. Axel Rudi Pell has stuck to the tried and tested formula of his previous 16 albums and delivered an excellent power metal album with, I think, some of his best material to date.

 

Written by: Simon Kneller

Rating: 9/10

 

 

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