Sadistic Symphony

Digital Dictator was an excellent record. Another time, another place? May be! Since the death of Carl Albert, Vicious Rumors have tried to come back. They try hard ... they have tried interesting things with Something Burning & Cyberchrist, but the magical lineup is "dead" and new ones are far, very far away from being as good as the famous one. Life is life ... Far to be a bad record, Sadistic Symphony is a return to Digital Dictator's power metal rhythm, but something is missing, something doesn't fit here. The vocalist is good when he doesn't scream (he gets on my nerves when he try to be more aggressive, even though he reminds me Paul Dianno when it comes to "screaming time"). Songs are good ... but when you are lucky enough to have Digital Dictator in your metal collection (I am lucky :-) ), there is nothing new in this Sadistic Symphony. I cannot stop thinking that some songs are more or less "self copycat" and that the band has changed some lyrics here and there to hide the "masquerade". Production is as good as Digital Dictator. Having in mind that Digital Dictator has been recorded in 1988, I let you guess what I mean when I said the production is good. Haven't we changed decade ... century ... millennium recently? I was waiting for this promo like a dog who hasn't eaten for two weeks and my heart is broken in two. I can imagine die-hard fans will maybe like it, but this is the type of album you should try before buying. Their best record since Vicious Rumors (1990), but we are miles away from what Vicious Rumors was about to become at that time. Finally Vicious Rumors reminds me of The Beatles somehow. Do you think we can recreate The Beatles without John Lennon?