Sky of Rage
s/t

A side project by an Astral Doors guitarist who also had his help creating the first album under this moniker by other people with history in said band, it is said to be interesting and all of that. “Joachim brings a new interpretation of classic Hard Rock. Solid Music for solid fans. It`s handmade…” says Metalville on their website and generally Metalville is a signature of solid metal, rarely something extraordinary but solid good music. The cover artwork isn’t quite interesting to be honest consisting of a big logo, the logo is quite good looking though. But what can we expect from this album then, Astral Doors with a singer that is not a “Dio-Wannabee”? Maybe something completely different?

Well, it is not really that different from Astral Doors and someone less nice than me would probably call it Astral Doors with a singer that does not desperately want to sound like Ronnie James Dio. But I am nicer than that and call it traditional heavy metal without any surprises, solid handywork and geared towards those who believe that heavy metal is the gods’ gift to mankind. It is very solidly produced and the sound is way better than anything I have heard by Astral Doors, in fact it is quite excellent. The songs that are eleven in number play for between three and a half minute to four and a half minute which make the average song length four minutes, these songs are decently varied but held well within an established framework without any adventurous sense. Some would probably criticise it for being too much alike Nordlund’s main band and that is a valid point.

I think that this Sky of Rage debut is rather good, nothing amazing or groundbreaking but it is a good listen nonetheless. There are no real low points on the album, it is a solid product with a high quality heavy metal feel to it. The idea of a side project have always been to do something different from the main band, to try other directions and so on but this album just feels more like it is about doing the same thing with other people for Joachim Nordlund. So despite it being good it feels a bit unnecessary, as it doesn’t really stand apart from what Nordlund has already done with Astral Doors and that can be said to be a bit unfortunate at least if you are not one who wants stuff to sound more or less the same within a genre of course.

There are three tracks I found really good, the second track called Countdown, the title track and Shape of a Giant are the ones. Those are excellent heavy metal tracks that are really enjoyable but in general this album is just another heavy metal album, a well made one for sure but well made heavy metal comes in pretty big numbers and I already own a big number of good heavy metal which makes this feel like a good listen but nothing more than that really. So, if you are a fan of ordinary heavy metal like from bands like Astral Doors, then you will really enjoy this album, it is a solid one.