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Astral Doors > Evil Is Forever > Reviews
Astral Doors - Evil Is Forever

Traditionally Inspired Traditional Metal - 75%

TheStormIRide, April 26th, 2013

Astral Doors is a band that some laud for their Dio worshiping traits and others hate for the same reason. “Evil is Forever”, the sophomore effort from this Swedish group, takes the catchy and kinetic styling of their debut, “Of the Sun and the Father”, and adds a more traditionally inspired approach. The same dichotomy of every Astral Doors release still exists, though: some of the songs are scorching, fist pounding anthems while some songs seem uninspired and bland, at least instrumentally.

The opener, “Bride of Christ”, opens up the album with a big, powerful, loud, fast bang. The entire track is catchy, with fast paced, hook laden guitar lines backed by Deep Purple inspired keyboard lines that sound like a Hammond organ. The best part, like all things Astral Doors, is the vocal lines, courtesy of Dio disciple, Nils Patrik Johansson. The entire band seems to be on fire during this track. The drums are fast and galloping with plenty of fills and rolls, the guitars are chunky, yet with a nice amount of groove and the bass is thick and, while mostly following the guitar lines, stands out with a rolling line here and there. After “Bride of Christ” is over, Astral Doors continue the same thing for the entire album, with varying degrees of catchiness, speed and intensity. Tracks like “Pull the Brake” and “The Flame” bring the same intensity and groove of the opener, but Astral Doors fills in the gaps with plodding, middle of the road tracks.

Although I like the faster paced tracks on this album more than the mid-paced stompers, there’s no denying that Astral Doors create some catchy mid-paced tracks, reminiscent of classic acts like Rainbow, Deep Purple and, of course, Dio. These slower tracks retain a lot of the catchiness of the barn burners, but a little something is lacking, whether it’s the overuse of keyboards that saturate the entire album or the fact that the lead guitars are less convincing when played at slower speeds. The riffing is still full of hooks and pretty catchy, but the drums are less forceful and the bass seems to just plod along.

I mentioned before that this band seems to take the whole Dio thing to heart. This is mostly due to the vocal chords of Nils Patrik Johansson, who has a delivery eerily similar to RJD, albeit more nasally and slightly accented. If it wasn’t for the vocals, the slower and mid paced tracks would probably be a flop. There are catchy parts, but the vocals are what make them more than standard, mediocre traditional metal. The vocals are much more powerful and intense during the choruses. The vocals are good during the verses: not forced or tired, but they seem lackluster when compared to the forceful choruses.

Falling back in line with the Dio influence, Astral Doors have backed off the magic and sword imagery that was a little overblown on the debut, but they continue to pen lyrics that would make RJD proud. “Fear in Their Eyes” in particular would sit well as a B-side on “Dream Evil”. Everything here hearkens back to the glory days of metal: the days when Dio was breaking away from Black Sabbath and the days before Ritchie Blackmore became a medieval recluse. The constant bombardment of Hammond styled keyboard work gets old though, as there is no free airspace.

After a few spins, the mid paced tracks get stale and relatively bland, but the fast paced anthems like “Bride of Christ” and “Pull the Brake” never seem to get tiring. Maybe it’s because after most of the album retaining a mid-paced plodding, these faster tracks just seem to have more life and fire. “Evil is Forever” does not do anything revolutionary, but it rocks just enough to stay relevant. This won’t sway anyone who doesn’t like the style, but fans of classic traditional metal will find plenty to enjoy here.

Originally Written for The Metal Observer:
http://www.metal-observer.com/

I'll always be around to praise the bones - 90%

Empyreal, February 24th, 2012

This is the only really good Astral Doors album, and while the follow up Astralism was decent as well, I really don’t think they can beat this one. Evil is Forever is an old school hard rock/metal album that doesn’t really break new ground, but certainly makes up for that with how much ass it kicks. It was also one of my first ever metal albums, and so this one has a special place in my heart.

The traditional Astral Doors formula is pretty much crunchy guitars, heavy riffing, some 70s-style keyboards and the vicious, man-eating vocals of Nils Patrik Johansson, done here with some of their most memorable songs. I mean can you really deny the blistering opener “Bride of Christ,” sacrilegious lyrics and hooky chorus and driving riff and all? I don’t think you can. “Time to Rock” is the most typical song on here, with perhaps the most unabashed Dio worshipping, but it’s not bad.

With the title track, though, we see probably what Astral Doors is best at – slower, grinding tunes. These guys are killer at churning out atmospheric mid-paced stompers. The creepy “Praise the Bones” and album standout “Fear in their Eyes” have some incredibly well done melodies and riffs. Johansson’s vocals are pretty much the central focus of the band, and while sometimes he goes a little too far over the top, he does more or less rule the album with his mighty howls. The band has a knack for writing great choruses, and every one is memorable after just one listen. They are short and layered and sung with a lot of verve.

One of the band’s other strengths on here is that they just sound completely unhinged and deranged, like an escaped cannibalistic mental patient. They attack these songs with a frenzy and mania unheard of in a lot of better known bands – this kind of hunger can only be found in an up-and-coming act, and I think it is exactly what is missing in Astral Doors’ later works. But on songs like “Pull the Break,” “The Flame” and another album standout in the furious “Lionheart,” they sound like they’re ready to smash some heads in, and it is one of their biggest assets.

So that’s Evil is Forever, and it is awesome. The band just put all their different parts together into one hell of a melodic metal album, with every tune hitting in all the right areas – catchy, rocking, tight and aggressive. The band never matched it. If you like any kind of melodic metal you need this one stat. Go get it.

Really uninteresting - 40%

BloodIronBeer, October 22nd, 2007

This is very generic, boring Dio-esque retro heavy metal/hard rock.

This hard rock tinged stuff is really, really not my thing.

It's pretty catchy in that "it's overly repetitive so of course it's going to get stuck in your head" kind of way. Dirt simple, complete Dio worship with the riffage, and contrived, typical heavy metal type lyrics.

"Love, hate and fury coming my way; Cry out in anger, got nothing to say; Cool, rich and famous, smoking cigars; The hole in my brain, won't stop me to ride the flame."

One thing that helps the attitude of old heavy metal is the badass traditional lyrics. And these aren't really what I'd hope for. Sometimes they don't even make sense. They're not well written, and they're not badass in the least. They're just words to fit the singing.

The production is a tad sterile. Too clean for it's own good. The playing is average on every level. And the goofy little keyboard in the background is just too much for me.

Nils vocals are the only real noteworthy portion of the music. He's got just a touch of raspiness, but he can hit some lofty notes. I really love his voice. But in the end it isn't enough. There's nothing noteworthy in the playing, in the style, in the song writing or any where else to be found.

Okay, so Bride of Christ is pretty catchy and The Flame is actually nice borderline power metal. But the overwhelming majority of the songs are too generic to do anything for me. Fear In Their Eyes, Praise the Bones and Time To Rock, among others are utter Dio worship. Again, if not for Nils vocals, the songs would feel like soulless replicas.

For diehard traditional heavy metal fans only.

Evil Is Forever! - 87%

Hammertime, March 5th, 2005

At first I have to say that Astral Doors is strongly influenced by Ronnie James Dio and Tony Martin era Black Sabbath. You can hear it in almost every song and Nils Patrik's voice isn't very individual but very good indeed. I will recommend this album to metal fans who are into 80's stuff especially DIO. Of course this is also a great way to newer fans to find good old stuff which they haven't heard much before. If you're a true fan of DIO or Tony Martin it is possible that you don't like Astral Doors at all because their music is so strongly influenced by those masters. However this album is an excellent work by Astral Doors. In my opinion this is much better stuff than DIO has done in years. It is much said, but I truly think that this album rocks so hard and Astral Doors will be a big name in the future.

The album starts with two fast hard rock/heavy metal songs. Bride Of Christ is one of my favourite songs on album and Time To Rock is a DIO influenced solid rocker. These two songs prove right away that Astral Doors is a group of great musicians. The title track Evil Is Forever contains an interesting and funny intro part which is cool. Evil Is Forever isn't so fast like two first songs but Nils Patrik's great voice and beautiful guitar work by band prove that this is also one of the finest songs on the album. Lionheart starts with an emotional and slow intro. This song is a quite traditional hard rock song but still good enough. There is also a good outro, which closes this song beautifully. Praise The Bones is a song that contains cool guitar riffs and simple but very good chorus. You'll certainly bang your head with this one. Pull The Break is a fast song which however doesn't contain anything special. Fear In Their Eyes is the next song and it is full of mystical atmosphere, like Black Sabbath. I like this one very much and Nils Patrik's voice is great on that song. Stalingrad is a fascinating, different, mystical and solid song. There is also a great chorus and some guitar melodies are very powerful. From The Cradle To The Grave is my least favourite on this album but it isn't a bad song. The chorus is stupid. However there are some great moments & vocal lines on that one also. Overall that song is average. The Flame is better than the previous song but not even close to the best songs on Evil Is Forever album. Path To Delirium is the the final track and it contains great atmosphere. Intro part is cool on this one. I think that this song is a successful ending to this great album.

Cover art of this album is quite good although the cover would as well be a cover of DIO album. As my final words I would say: Give this album a chance. I bet you will surprise how good this album is. For me this will probably be one of the best albums released in year 2005.