Heavy/Power Metal
Nuclear Blast Records
Release Date – June 16th 2023
Line Up:
Steve Carlson – Vocals
Ed Archer – Guitar
Steve Conley – Guitar
Jim Dofka – Lead Guitar
John Macko – Bass
Ken Mary – Drums
Tracklist:
1 – Descent Into Darkness
2 – When Angels Kill
3 – Resist The Tyrant
4 – On Wings Of Steel
5 – We Are Immortal
6 – Empire Of Hate
7 – Run To The Black
8 – Seven Angels
9 – Blinded And Bleeding
10 – Kill The Pain
11 – Five Days To Madness
12 – Ashes To Ashes
13 – The End Of Everything
14 – Light The Skies
Fifth Angel came out of the Seattle metal scene just after Metal Church and Queensryche. They gained inspiration from those two now legendary bands and set about recording their debut in 1985 with producer Terry Date. The self-titled debut was Date’s first production job and was released in Europe through the fledgling Roadrunner Records. Epic Records were impressed by their first effort that they signed the band to a multi-album deal for over $20 million! Everything looked rosy. They recorded their second record with producer Terry Brown of Rush fame and one of those tracks, ‘Midnight Love’ was used as the theme music for Howard Sterns radio show for about 4 years. Then grunge happened which, ironically started in Seattle, buggered everything up and Fifth Angel split.
The members went off and forged their careers most notably drummer Ken Mary who threw his lot in with the likes of Alice Cooper, Don Dokken, Chastain, and House Of Lords. Come 2010 the band was invited to reform for a one-off at the Keep It True festival in Germany. The band noticed that the crowd knew all the words to the songs, but it wasn’t until 2018 that the fruits of the reunion were born with ‘The Third Secret’ which garnered the band more festival appearances the next year.
Now here we have the latest installment of what should have been a stellar career. A concept album based in the future where a young man refuses to be subjugated by the powers that are controlling everything. The young man finds like-minded people who fight for a better world despite isolation, impending doom, catastrophic events, and treachery by the one he loves.
‘Descent Into Darkness’ starts proceedings with a minute long intro where everybody gets involved before they tear into the title track and give us a good look at what we can expect, red hot riffs, pounding rhythms and a voice than can go from a masculine growl to shattering glass. This is real metal! ‘Resist The Tyrant’ brings some sublime lead work from Jim Dofka on the intro before it lurches into a melodic metal stomper that will get the fists pumping. ‘On Wings Of Steel’ rattles along at a fair old clip then we get a heavy dose of chest beating power metal on ‘We Are Immortal’ which is another that will get the horns thrown. ‘Empire Of Hate’ has an epic feel and races along on a galloping riff that gets your head bangin’ all the way to ‘Run To The Black’ which kinda pays homage to Metal Church with a tough melody and loads of chug then ‘Seven Angels’ has great spoken word intro which I won’t spoil goes racing along on another power metal ride. ‘Blinded And Bleeding’ sounds big and nasty and really shows the range of Steve Carlson then ‘Kill The Pain’ gets darker and meaner on a malevolent riff and tells the tale of treachery of a loved one. ‘Five Days To Madness’ is another metal banger then the darkness returns on ‘Ashes To Ashes’ which brings Marta Gabriel from Crystal Viper to share the mic on a huge semi-power ballad. ‘The End Of Everything’ carries the power ballad thing forward with a real Savatage feel – epic with loads of melody and synths swirling between the guitars before final cut ‘Light The Skies’ gives us a perfect power metal climax.
Talk about value for money – fourteen tracks of world class power/heavy metal clocking in at an hour and nine minutes. It’s one of those concept albums where you can listen as a whole, or the tracks can stand alone. The live energy has been captured by producer Ken Mary and he’s managed to bring all the instruments right up front without them fighting against each other. A monumental release and one that will continue the legendary name of Fifth Angel.
Written by: Smudge
Ratings: 9/10
About Author
