Problematic.......
tiger | Luxemburg | 07/30/2002
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Being half german and full power metal fan I would like to rate this output higher - but HOTD is not really equipped to
meet the best genre bands in the overwhelming competition from
( most notably ) Italys hordes of true and speed metal bands......The instrumental skills are shockingly good ( even if I think that parts of the drumming is done by a computer, it's to geometric-precise...) and songwriting is also very good (although uneven ) - but there are flaws in the work ;
- singer s'Anna has to improve his singing , and put more emotions behind it , many of the vocals sound like a teenage
hardrock band - simply because of it's immaturity
- the lyrics could surely be more refined ( " defenders of metal " feels like something from the 80s and will probably
annoy the adult group of the listeners )On the whole however - the album is quite good , and the
rawsounding production makes for a fresh sounding variation
to all those symphonic epic metal bands.....There is ONE song on this album that really stands out , and I mean REALLY ( it's also the reason I bought it ).
" Magic Potion " is tremendously good and I do not think I've
heard a masterpiece like this before within " raw-melodic speed
metal ". It's easily a contender to speedmetal top 3 when
you out 2001 in retrospect.
If the whole album would be in the same style - then Wizard
would radically change the hierarchy within the genre - unfortunately the other songs are not even close to this one....
Nevertheless- good and solid melodic speed metal that
certainly can entertain a true metal fan ( who can look
past the , partly , childish lyrics )"
A very good Power Metal album
metalbeast666 | Nottingham England | 08/27/2001
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I am impressed by this album, it has some great songs on it. I nearly gave it five stars, but I have decided to reserve five star ratings for only the greatest albums and although this album is very good it is not quite 'up there' with the all time greats. The musicians on this album are all very good. The guitar work is great and the drummer is one of the best I've heard (and with the quality of drumming in power metal bands, that's saying something!) This is a very 'metal' band who sing songs about metal. I would recommend this album to any fan of the genre."
