Albatross
Fear From the Skies

It can be a giant bird, or a band from India – depending on if you are an ornithologist or a music journalist. Being the latter I went for the album, the first album by the band called Albatross. That album has a funny cover artwork. And the album is separated into two stories, the first five tracks is one story and the ending three tracks are another story.

Heavy metal is what it is on this album, classic heavy metal infused with some doses of thrash and a little other stuff. The stories are stylistically different which is a positive thing, the vocals are okay, the guitars are soaring in classic heavy metal styles, they have three guitarists. The variation is fairly large over the eight tracks and we get a modern production that also reeks of nostalgia. I think it is a great production and there are indication that the band also has some imagination even though most of the album builds on tried and tested styles.

I like this album overall, sure it is creatively a little weak but the opening pair of tracks, the intro and the track called The Raptorsville Fair are absolutely wonderful. I like the quirkiness of that second track; it alone makes the album worth hearing on my part because to be honest the rest of the album is quite uninspiring. Don’t get me wrong I think this is a strong album but I think that it will mostly appeal to fans of classic heavy metal and less so to other music fans. Still, the creativity and the things that are outside the box makes the album appeal to me as a reviewer but in the end I think that one track cannot make the entire album.

Well, I found it surprisingly difficult to write much about this album, maybe because it didn’t really make that much of an impression on me, other than the first two tracks there are just quite typical heavy metal and that kind of thing I have already heard a whole lot of. At least there was something for me but if you are a heavy metal fan you probably will find this album very agreeable.

HHHHHHH