Search - Astral Doors :: Evil Is Forever

Dio Is Forever

alpha128 | Cleveland, OH USA | 10/18/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Sweden's Astral Doors turned Ronnie James Dio worship into a full-time job. "Evil is Forever" (2005) takes inspiration from Dio's work in Rainbow, Black Sabbath and his eponymous band, and throws in some Deep Purple influences for good measure.



This album begins with the speed and power of "Bride of Christ" and then proceeds to hit you with one great song after another. "Time to Rock", "Evil Is Forever", "Lionheart" and "Praise the Bones" are all engaging from the first listen. Next comes another great speed metal track, "Pull the Break" (which has more than a passing resemblance to "I Speed at Night" from The Last in Line). The first half of this CD flows so well, I was amazed at how quickly the time passed.



But an inverse bell curve appears with tracks 7 through 9. In other words, things start to drag during "Fear in Their Eyes", bottom out in "Stalingrad", and then begin to rebound with "From the Cradle to the Grave". These aren't bad songs, but they seem to lack the urgency of the ones that preceded them.



Astral Doors right themselves with the third speed metal track "The Flame" and the concluding epic "Path to Delirium".



This CD really deserves 4.5 stars. Since Amazon doesn't allow half-stars, and the previous reviewer couldn't increase his rating from 3 to 4 stars as he wished, I'll round my rating up to 5 stars.



Fans of late '70s / early '80s hard rock and metal should check out this album."