Madtropolis

Chinchilla was something of an enigma in their brief heyday from the late 1990s until the middle of the first decade of the new millennium, sporting a name that signifies an cute, furry animal not normally associated with the dark, cynical songs that have generally tended to dominate their albums, particularly following their signing with Metal Blade Records. Comparatively speaking, they were never terribly dark in their musical demeanor, which generally stuck close to the late 80s power metal as typified in Tony Martin era Black Sabbath, but their namesake definitely cuts against the notion of bleak political commentary. Such was the character of Chinchilla's third studio LP The Last Millennium, an album that leaned towards pessimism and occasionally deviated into celebration of unrelated themes of partying and metal worship. Madtropolis is cut from a similar grain, differing only from its predecessor in that the dystopian themes have become a bit more conceptualized and pronounced.

While The Last Millennium stands as Chinchilla's crowning achievement from a song for song standpoint, it should be noted that this album carries a slight edge in the technique department, largely due to the inclusion of a couple of virtuoso musicians in the creation of these songs, one of them being longtime guest/session keyboardist Artur Diessner, now a permanent member of the line up, and the introduction of bassist Roberto Palacios as a session player. Both of these players bring in a greater degree of presence and intrigue to their respective instruments, particularly in the case of Palacios, who's bass contributions break out of the support role box on several occasions, most notably the intro of "Turn Around The Magic Table" and that of "Headless Fools", though it should be noted that Diessner rips out some impressive keyboard solos on "Battle Of The World" and "A Dance With The Devil", all but rivaling Jens Johansson and carving out a solid technical foil for Gerstenmeyer's generally methodical and somewhat restrained lead work.

Due to the heavily stylized character of Chinchilla's overall sound, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to consider all three of their middle era albums as conceptual works, but only in the case of this particular venture is it overtly structured as such. It begins with an orchestrated instrumental that is somewhat along the lines of a national anthem, which is gets a reprise at the album's close with only the slightest of modifications. In between lay a heavily consistent restatement of a songwriting style that was last heard circa The Headless Cross and Tyr in 1989 and 1990 respectively. Much of it tends to follow the model of the moderately fast speed metal formula employed by Cozy Powell on "The Law Maker" and the tail end of "Nightwing", though it is interesting to note that "Turn Around The Magic Table" and "Entire World" take a step back into Heaven And Hell territory. The only deviations from this formula is a rather sappy ballad in "Satellite" that sounds a little too closer to a band 80s power ballad, and "Money Rules Everything", which listens closer to a reinterpretation of a 70s Deep Purple or Rainbow tune with a bluesy demeanor and a slight silliness to it.

Despite the occasional foray into less serious territory, Madtropolis is basically a perfect restatement of what was heard on The Last Millennium, only being inferior in that this album's highlights such as "A Dance With The Devil", "Headless Fools" and "Madtropolis" don't hit the ears with quite the same level of catchy brilliance that "Nighttrain Of Death" and "Victims Of The Night" did. It is definitely tailored for the more nostalgic power metal fan who wants to hear a sound that was more common prior to the predominance of Helloween's faster and more neo-classically tinged approach, a distinction that this band generally shares with Axel Rudi Pell, only Chinchilla borrows from a later era of Black Sabbath and has a somewhat more modern approach that incorporates some newer power metal traits, not the least of which being a vocalist that sounds fairly close to Edguy's Tobias Sammet. It's a little bit of new and a large amount of old, culminating in a formulaic and fun listen for anyone who craves a good hook.