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This is a very interesting album… Rebellion have chosen to tell the
story of Shakespeare's famous tragedy, Macbeth. Also worthy to mention, ex-Grave
Digger guitarist Uwe Lulis is axe-man for Rebellion.
I read Macbeth several years ago in college, so I can't claim to be an expert
on the story of Macbeth as my memory has faded over the years (uggghh...I'm
not young any more!). However, after listening to this CD several times now,
I can tell you that Rebellion have retold the story accurately. During
the spoken acting parts of the CD, they often use excerpts right out of the
original Shakespeare play, but also mix in narration. For those of you who are
familiar with Shakespeare, you know that the dialect of that time period is
very different from modern day English and can be quite difficult to understand.
But, the "old English" is kept to a minimum which allows the listener to follow
the story with ease. Be warned however, that most tracks on this album either
contain at least two minutes of spoken acting/narration at the beginning or
end of the song, with some limited spoken parts in the middle of some songs.
This feature certainly has its place in telling the story, but some fans who
particularly don't like spoken narration on albums should note this fact before
making the purchase. I enjoyed it since I knew what I was in store for before
listening to the CD, but some unknowing person expecting 74 minutes of nonstop
heavy metal will no doubt be surprised to hear all the spoken parts. This is
the type of CD that certainly requires your full attention if you want to follow
the story behind the music. Unlike the Nightfall in Middle Earth album
by Blind Guardian, the spoken acting segments are not broken off into
separate tracks. They fall either at the end or beginning of the songs themselves.
So, after quite a few listens when you have heard the story several times and
want to focus on the music itself, it is very difficult since you can't just
skip the spoken parts by hitting the "track skip" button.
Now, for the music itself. What we have here is an album of speedy, heavy riff
driven power metal not too far removed from Uwe's Grave Digger days.
In fact, the guitar work of Uwe is very much a highlight for Rebellion
as Uwe has come up with some powerful and neck breaking riffs on nearly each
and every track (check out the end of Husbandry in Heaven....
killer track!). The production is good, but certainly not at the top of the
class. The drumming sounds too raw at certain points (but not many, and the
drum level is a bit too loud periodically as well). I might be a little bit
too picky here as you really have to listen to the disc carefully to notice
this. As for the vocals, we have what I would best describe as a mutation of
the Chris Boltendahl (Grave Digger) and Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear),
but without the incredible range Scheepers and not as brutal as Boltendahl.
When heading for the higher octaves, it sounds like he is pushing his limits.
He doesn't quite go into "out of tune" territory, but he is close in a few instances. Harmony vocals are used extensively throughout the album, which remind me quite
a lot of those used by Grave Digger. The Dead Arise is the only
slow tempo song on the album. So, aside from the all the spoken parts, Rebellion
deliver a nice slab of speedy power metal with some outstanding guitar work
by Uwe Lulis. Uwe has picked up right where he left off with Grave Digger,
and has certainly given his music a creative twist by tailoring the album to
the story of Macbeth.
Fans of Grave Digger will certainly want to check this release out.
Uwe has not missed a bit since leaving Grave Digger as his guitar work
is in fine form to say the least. I must stress again the fact that this album
contains a lot of spoken acting between songs which some fans will appreciate,
but will completely turn other fans away. The spoken parts do however fit in
quite well with the powerful music to tell the story of Macbeth. This is not
an easy album to listen to. You will most certainly have to devote all your
attention to the album to fully appreciate the story behind the music.