Crossroad

After a very good debut album, The Storyteller are back with an album that will probably please their fans which follows the path of their debut. In other words, Hammerfall meet Helloween (Keepers period). I say probably because I'm not totally convinced by this second effort. Once again we'll find heavy riffing à la Hammerfall, but with more strength in them, in order to deliver harder songs. The melodies are all catchy hymn-like, maybe a bit too cheesy this time, à la Helloween revisited with today's heaviness, but let's face it, it ain't original, and can even sound "microwave" heated from time to time. I quite liked their debut, but I don't think this one is an improvement and it might already sound too repetitive. The album features some excellent songs like The Unknown, The Eyes Of The Storm, Ambush, the album entitled Crossroad, probably the best song along with the epic finale The Moment Of Truth with its ending choirs à la Heading The Call from Hammerfall With always these heavy guitar riffs in front but the singer hasn't improved a bit, and I find him a bit light for the task of painting the songs of this heaviness and power. Abit more aggressivity in his tone would certainly not hurt. As per the solos, some are simply majestic, fast, furiously fast actually and always very melodic. Although I like the first album better, this one is more constant, the very medium (almost bad) songs are almost gone. There are some weaker songs then and there, but still they are fairly good ones (only some moments may sound strange). The album contains also some mid-tempo songs and ballads, with an excellent one called Loss Of A Friend on which I'm amazed by the overall emotional feel that emanates from the song. Production wise it's still quite good a production like their debut. Also similar to their debut is the weak artwork. But I guess that this is more a matter of taste and I guess this isn't much my style of paintings. In the end I'd say that there are a few excellent songs, but once again the album misses that magical touch that you can find in both Helloween and Hammerfall albums. A good album that will pleases the die hard fans of melodic Power Metal, but don't wait for the best in the category, cause you won't get it. A fairly good release, but still a bit disappointing compared to their debut.