Metal
Messiah's Kiss
(SPV)

This lot of Germans play power metal, with quite a bit of melody and a hell of a lot of skill. This is competent melodic power metal of the European variety. While it may not be the most original collection of tracks, it is rather good. Ones that are particularly good are the melodic male/female vocal dual of 'Tears in the Rain', which is closer to pure AOR than it is Judas Priest and the purposely cheesy anthem 'Metal 'til we Die'. There are some prog elements around in the mix as well. This lot is produced by musical polymath Nikolo Kotzev. Damn good fun all around and well worthy of your CD monies. Oh yes, and like many such albums, it gets better with each listen. Not quite sure who thought it would be a neat idea to have sounds of a dog playing with its chew toy at the end of CD.

Rating: 4/5