Trick or Treat
The Legend of the XII Saints

The last time I reviewed this Italian band I figured that their record based on the movie Watership Down was a real treat. Since then they have recorded a few more albums, lite the sequel to Rabbit’s Hill Part 1 that I reviewed and some more, and now they are up to some new tricks. This time they are looking at pieces of the zodiac, and warriors, and something inspired by Saint Seya anime – a conceptual album where the songs are telling the stories of the twelve knights and their connection to Athena. They could have used a cooler cover but the videos for the songs that can be found on the band’s youtube site are quite cool and amusing. So what about the album?

Well they are true to form, it is very catchy power metal, reminding of Helloween a bit which isn’t much of a surprise since they started out as a tribute band to Helloween. They build songs around strong choruses and infectious melodies, with excellent production they make music that is easy to take to, and easy to like. The songs show strong variation and they are fourteen, the zodiac signs and what I guess is an intro and a conclusion. I was actually surprise to see that the playing time was over an hour, to me it seemed to be a lot shorter than that, a strong feat to make the album engaging over such a long time as there are not many band that succeed in such an endeavour.

This is a great album once again, the argument against it would be that it doesn’t really break new ground, but to be successful in making good stuff you are either original or really excellent at what you do and that is certainly the case with these guys. Their songs are incredibly catchy and really good, I don’t think that there is any weak track on this album only great ones. The song I find most appealing is ironically enough my own sing in the zodiac, to be born in that sign isn’t great but the song makes it appear somewhat better. It is an album that is very enjoyable to listen to.

So, in the ending conclusion I can say that this album comes highly recommended, the songs are ridiculously catchy and enjoyable and though they don’t offer much originality it is still a fairly fresh feeling album. Trick or Treat certainly gives us a treat with this great album, you should check it out.

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