Shadow Zone

Here comes Axel again with their new CD and the story of the CD would follow some part of a trilogy started in "The Masquerade Ball", this new CD after listened to all of their songs could have been entitled as "The Ballad Zone" for the amount of ballads on it but as Axel does some really great ballads it gets a high rate once again.

Fast songs on it are "Edge Of The World", "Follow The Sign" and "Saint Of Fools" and all of these three are once again done really well by the band but the opening one "Edge Of The World" is hell of a fast song, the drums by Mike Terrana are real fast and everything on it makes it for their opening track in their tour around in Europe. I would not mention the song "Coming Home" as a fast song, it contains lots of guitars but done in a light way, not the best done by Axel.

The zone of ballads arrive with the epic "Live For The King" and goes with two other amazing ballads romance lyrically "All The Rest Of My Life" and "Heartbreaker" with great keyboards done by one of the best keyboardists out there, Ferdy Doernberg, he is the one that made me like keyboards in heavy metal.

There are also other two ballads/kind of epic "Time Of The Truth" and "Under The Gun" which could have been added to the CD in changed order because as "Under The Gun" finishes I was hoping for more as it is not the best Axel have finished the CD so far and with "Time Of The Truth" would have finished it even better.

To the trustee of modern metal who is continually caught up in the bustle of every new innovation the genre has put forth, if the name Axel Rudi Pell is discussed, it is often in the context of a relic of a long gone past when heavy metal was still heavily tied in with its hard rock ancestry. While there is a fair bit of truth to this perspective, it by no means suggests that Axel's brand of Sabbath/Rainbow/Dio emulative orthodoxy is a static machine that simply churns out successive carbon copies of itself. The rich traditions established by said bands have indeed formed a foundation upon which not only the NWOBHM, but even the power and speed metal offshoots thereof have continually drawn upon up to the turn of the millennium, and ARP has not been averse to incorporating innovations found in these sub-genres to further bolster his sense of metal traditionalism. Throughout the 1990s when heavy metal was declared dead to the world, the incarnation of this band helmed by ex-Malmsteen vocalist Jeff Scott Soto upped the ante in terms of heaviness and melodic splendor, spearheading the eventual power metal revival at a time when there were only a few holdouts such as Gamma Ray and Helloween keeping the melodic strain of the style alive, not to mentioning getting the jump on the more traditional niche within said scene several years before Hammerfall came on the scene.

All of that being said, there have been ebbs and flows in the quality of ARP's output over the decades, and this has largely dovetailed with recurring trends in Pell's focus on rock and traditional metal influences vs. power metal elements. Of late, there has been a greater concentration of 70s and 80s orthodoxy vs. more contemporary influences from the 90s and 2000s, and it started in 2002 with the release of Shadow Zone. Though by no means a weak offering, there is a notable decrease in impact relative to atmosphere and groove, to speak nothing for a clear reduction in the amount of speed metal elements at play, one that ironically parallels the shift in power metal circles towards a more AOR-oriented sound thanks to the efforts of Masterplan, Edguy and Sonata Arctica in the mid-2000s, if not outright preempts it. It largely manifests here as a heavier proliferation of mid-paced rockers and extended epic balladry, and while nothing quite touches the long-winded musical journeys of "The Gates Of The Seven Seals" or "The Masquerade Ball", the greater multiplicity of songs featuring extended moments of bluesy noodling, subdued keyboard-driven serenity and an air of droning simplicity reminiscent of old school, Dio-fronted Rainbow material results in an album that feels much more drawn out than it actually is from a time duration standpoint.

Consequently, this album is an overall solid yet slightly underwhelming experience for anyone who really enjoyed the first two albums featuring Johnny Gioeli on vocals, let alone the Jeff Scott Soto material that preceded them. Chasing what is arguably the most dramatic ambient intro to come out of ARP's arsenal "The Curse Of The Chains" with a haunting slide guitar melody to boot, this album's lone speed metal offering "Edge Of The World" functions as the exception that proves the rule, consisting of a slow-paced rock riff that has a cruising double bass beat thrown over top by Mike Terrana; by no means a slouch in the aggression department, but functions more like an amped up version of "Cry Of The Gypsy" rather than an outright blazer like "Earls Of Black" or "Holy Creatures". The only other really forceful rocker to really rise above down-tempo territory is the heavy crusher "Follow The Sign", a popular live feature for the band throughout the 2000s with a highly infectious chorus hook and some reasonably punchy riff work, but more of a straightforward, fist-pumping fanfare work than an outright speeder. The slower rocker "Saint Of Fools" is a fairly engaging and catchy listen, but presents another example of Pell stomping the ground at a safer speed and with a more formulaic guitar assault until his token shred-fest drops following the second chorus.

The lion's share, and by which it is implied roughly 3/4th of this album's total length, is comprised of long material that sort of blurs the lines between outright balladry and the epic sort of semi-balladry that ARP often uses for title songs (this album is one of the few that doesn't feature a title track). The seven minutes plus anthem "Coming Home" isn't really a ballad in the technical sense, but has an extremely drawn-out, mid-paced jam feel with an extended guitar solo segment that parallels the coasting mellowness of "Carousel" with about maybe half of the power of said anthem off Oceans Of Time. The extremely subdued balladry of "All The Rest Of My Life" and the happy, bordering on sappy "Heartbreaker" almost come off as trance music in their static slowness, yet manage to occasionally break out into a triumphant apex at key points to inject some needed drama into the equation. On the other side of things stands the towering trifecta of subdued affairs turned triumphant metal anthems "Live For The King" "Time Of The Truth" and "Under The Gun", which basically drive the entire album and give things a distinctive, middle ground between heavy and soft sort of flavoring. Though they were definitely a new niche for ARP at the time this album came out, they've since become an ongoing template that has been continually drawn upon, particularly following 2006's Mystica.

In the grand scheme of Axel Rudi Pell's solo career of now 30 years running, Shadow Zone stands as what could be dubbed his most middle of the road affair. It has most of the bells and whistles that fans of his entire career have come to love in his music, yet it marks a fairly sizable departure from what had largely been a more energetic, bordering on frenetic template that made them a standout metal band in a time period when grunge and later nu-metal were dominating the airwaves. Things would tilt ever so slightly back towards the old ways on the next two subsequent albums, but for the most part this is the album that has come to define the latter period of ARP's output, with such noted albums as The Crest, Circle Of The Oath and even their most recent album Knights Call drawing heavily from the same formula that permeates this entire listen. By no means a weak album and definitely one that has some standout moments, but when measured against the sheer brilliance of what surrounds it in both its immediately past and future, it shines just a tad less brightly and is probably one of the last albums that one may want to consider when first approaching this band's music. Every castle in Pell's extensive realm has its elements of glory, but this one has shown a bit more wear and tear among its many tapestries due to the passage of time.

(Rewritten on July 23rd, 2019)

During the change of the millenium Axel Rudi Pell was running out of ideas. The band still held hard onto their 80's style riff and vocals, but that's not what the fans or any metal head wanted! So they started to become very melodic, especially in the guitar riffs and vocals. One of the best examples of melodic style coming is in the song Edge of the World. Fast pased riffs with double bass drumming, and shreding solos. Like all Axel Rudi Pell albums (or all the ones I have heard) have the best openings. The Curse of the Chains has a soft keyboard intro and guitar solo that sets the mood of the album, and sets it into a good mood! Over all riffs are either slow or fast pased, depending on the song. Vocals are well done, Johnny Gioeli is one of my favorite singers. He can hit all the notes without any difficulties! And what would be an ARP album without ballads! Live For the King is cool because it gets fast during the chorus, and it is a very driven epic ballad. All the Rest of My Life, is just one of those classic ballads, as is Heartbreaker! Nice vocals guitar solo's and perfect drumming to make the mood nice and mellow. The production is almost perfect, a little technical difficulties, but not bad enough to ruin this album. Axel Rudi Pell has taken his band into the 21 century well done, combining 80 tradtional with melodic style of hard metal. There is also a lot of blend with keyboards and extra sounds, which once again ARP does 100% perfect; everything blends nice toghether! This album is a lot different from any of the past albums. It's not really a bad thing, or really a good thing. But it shows that this band still has kicks and will continue to have kicks for quite some time!!!