Power Metal
Massacre Records
Release Date – November 14th 2025
Line Up:
Tobias Hubner – Vocals
Volker Schmietow – Guitar
Tobias Kipp – Guitar
Jurgen Wannenwetsch – Bass
Bernd Heinig – Drums
Tracklist:
Echoes Of Eternity
Labyrinth Of Time
Time Thief
The Illusionist
The Price
Thunderstorm
Passing Hours
Eye Of Wisdom
Nocturnal Dreams
The Ocean’s Call
Screaming outta Germany come Skull and Crossbones with their sophomore effort. Having not heard the debut, I cannot comment but I will be getting hold of it ASAP. Born out of loads of previous bands with three of the members having been in Stormwitch I can only assume they were not happy with that band’s direction and sought a better outlet for their power metal fury.
Kicking off with the superb ‘Echoes Of Eternity’ they waste no time in getting to it then go for a bass driven power metal anthem on ‘Labyrinth Of Time’. Singer Tobias Hubner has the perfect voice for this stuff. Big and powerful with a huge range. ‘Time Thief’ is a proper NWOBHM banger with some fabulous leads and twin harmonies and boy does Hubner go high – almost smashed my glasses. Things come down on the darker ‘The Illusionist’ before Hubner gives us a proper scream and they career off on a fist pumping anthem that rises and falls seamlessly before ‘The Price’ gets a dose of the chugs and they kick up a shed load of dust on some classic power metal. ‘Thunderstorm’ starts with – you guessed it – a storm before they launch into another monumental masculine metal banger then we get some shimmer on ‘Passing Hours’ before they give us some more of those superb twin lines on a melodic metal gem. It gets better on the heavier nastier ‘Eye Of Wisdom’ then we get a jangly ballad on ‘Nocturnal Dreams’ which is almost a west coast/southern rocker. We get some Viking ‘woooaaah’ sounds on ‘The Ocean’s Call’ and we’re away on a rollicking shanty.
Blimey this is good. This is quality power metal expertly played with a monster production. Great songs that are full of excellent cinematic visions. If you’re a fan of Helloween and Hammerfall and like those big epic tunes, then this will be right up your Strasse.
Written by: Smudge
Ratings: 9/10
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