VELVET THUNDER

I pretty much wear my heart on my sleeve when it comes to music and love most genres with progressive rock, metal and jazz being my go to sounds. Get me on about Judas Priest and I am in my happy place and anything Priest or Priest derived will have me in raptures of delight. This then led to so many more discoveries and there continues to be a never ending stream of more new bands coming along everyday and then, over the years, you get introduced to some real heavyweights like Queensryche, Dream Theater, Symphony-X, Kamelot, Shadow Gallery and you believe music can never get any better and then you discover Savatage and suddenly you are in Heaven. Now, if you have not come across this pioneering band (and I cannot believe there is anyone out there who has not) then prepare yourself for a real journey of joy which will also take in albums by Chris Caffrey, Jon Oliva’s Pain, Circle II Circle which really is hard rock nirvana.

So, when Sorrow Is The Cure by Legions Of The Night came up for review I pressed the magic play button and was then taken on a 54-minute ride of wonder! Legions Of The Night is a new band formed only last year by bass player Jens Faber (Dawn Of Destiny) and he soon brought on board fellow band member Philipp Bock on drums and the extraordinary Henning Basse of Metalium and ex-Firewind on vocals. It appears that they almost immediately decided that Savatage would be the band template with other influences obviously taken from Metalium, Firewind and Dawn Of Destiny but Savatage would be the key or core of the band sound.

Between them, they have managed to create a new and fresh album that sounds like Savatage but obviously isn’t them as it is 100% Legions Of The Night; it is a homage rather than a direct copy in the same way that so many bands have been influenced by Judas Priest by simply taking up the baton and running with it to create something new. However, if you are a fan of Savatage then you will most certainly fall in love with this quite stupendous old school metal album that easily and so sublimely covers hard rock, heavy metal and power metal. Henning Basse sounds as good as I have ever heard him and he infuses the record with such power, might and majesty with Philipp Bock outstanding with his mercurial drums and this leaves the multi-talented Jens Faber to showcase his quite magnificent skills on guitar, bass and keyboards. His work is exquisite and, if you did not know any better, then you would take this album for some lost work by the American superstars and you cannot give any praise higher than that.

Hopefully, there will be much more from this new band to come and they will obviously need to recruit if they take the album on tour which I truly hope they do. The album closes with a Savatage cover, what, else as the band roars through a rousing and very expressive version of Sirens, great stuff.

Order your copy now, I have.