Helion Prime
s/t

Originally born from a love of metal and all things science, does that sound like a match made in heave or what? The best music of the world and the wonders of science sound like something of a recipe for wonderful music and it is always good to know that all metal isn’t about gruesome death and knights in shining armour riding through enchanted forests on white unicorns and that sort of thing. It is way better with saucers and astronauts in colourful space suits shooting laser rifles; you have to love sci-fi and the cover of this album. That means that the good omens are gathering for these guys, so lets see if they are right.

Stylistically they aren’t really offering much that we haven’t heard before, it is power metal with female vocals. I think you can describe it being somewhat in the style of Iron Savior with a female vocalist, kind of standardised power metal but with some sci-fi and epic touches just to spice it all up. They sound very familiar but still have a relatively fresh sound, and they know how to make a well-sounding production. And we have good variation over ten tracks, clever tracks that have equations and everything. Did I mention the female vocalist, she is good but I do think she could have articulated her words a little better – they do also have plenty guests spicing up the show. All in all I think that this can be described as a quality production.

This is a great album, I enjoy listening to it and I’d think rather place it in the record shelf of my spaceship than throw it in a nearby black hole. Sure there are some drawback like the lack of articulation, not a major problem especially if you have access to the lyrics in printed form. Then I should also point out that the growled vocals in Keep What You Kill isn’t exactly what I call good, but I don’t really think these small negatives detract from the fact that this is an excellent power metal album – but if they iron out them they could make something absolutely brilliant. Yeah, I think Helion Prime makes a great debut and a great album, well worth looking closer at.

There are ten tracks on this album, they are all good even Keep What You Kill despite the lousy vocals – but I do think the track called Apollo (the Eagle has Landed) is one that takes off and flies very high. Then I also think that the second track The Drake Equation is worthy of an honourable mention amongst the high fliers on this album, question is when and if this equation will ever be verified or dismissed through real world trials. And with that I can conclude that life seems to find a way for these guys and this album is a great one to listen to on the ride into a black hole.

HHHHHHH