Helion Prime
Question Everything

The self-titled debut from 2016 was a pretty magical album, an excellent start for Helion Prime and a great album overall. Since then they have released another album that was a cybernetic monster, the promo for that had so bad sound that I didn’t want to review it but from what I did hear it didn’t sound as well as the debut. They had change vocalist from the great Heather Michele to Sozos Michael, both of them are heard on this album doing guest vocals on the title track because they have another new vocalist in Mary Zimmer. First singer Heather doesn’t only do guest vocals but has also helped writing lyrics and melodies. The concept of the album is that the songs are about important characters throughout history, like the philosopher Socrates and mathematician Katherine Johnson to name a pair. I also think the cover is pretty cool, but what about the music?

Those of you that know the debut album will probably find the album pretty familiar as it is similar with catchy choruses, strong melodies, good lyrics, great choruses where the sequence of words is longer than is often the case in the genre, something that helps avoiding that repetitive nature that many power metal bands have. The vocalist Mary Zimmer has a pretty good voice, but doesn’t sing very well as she doesn’t always articulate the words very well so it is sometimes really hard to make out what she sings about, and that isn’t a very good thing. Good vocal melodies make it catchy and lessen that somewhat; good variation over the songs is another important thing that helps this album avoid feeling too long despite a 57-minute playing time. Compared with the debut it is similar but with less appealing vocals and somewhat less depth and emotional resonance.

Question Everything is a great album, not only because the title scream what you should do when browsing your social media channels, it has great songs and is certainly one of the power metal highlights of recent years. I think Madame Mercury that was released as a lyrics video on what would have been Katherine Johnson’s 102nd birthday is the best one, a good homage to a great person who did the math that allowed NASA to send astronauts to the moon. It was also great that it was released as a lyrics video because making out what Zimmer sings isn’t easy, a slight niggle on a fantastic song. The ending Misfits cover is another one that kicks ass, but I really like all the songs as these guys certainly knows how to make strong power metal. The only slight issue I have is that I don’t quite like the vocals, I think Heather had more character and was a contributing factor to the greatness of the debut while this album is great despite Mary’s vocals. Still that is not really a big issue, this bum has some of the character the debut had, perhaps thanks to Heather’s input.

So, even if you should question everything there isn’t too much reason to doubt the quality of this album, it is quite great and impressive. Helion Prime strikes back with another showcase in how to make great power metal – if you like power metal there is no reason not to get this album, it will be well worth every penny you need to spend on it. I have to say that these guys have now given us two of the best power metal releases the last five years, you should check them out.

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