REVIEW: HEAVENLY - SIGN OF THE WINNER

 

HEAVENLY - SIGN OF THE WINNER (Century Media Records, 2001)

Produced by Tommy Hansen and Heavenly

Recorded at Sound of the Winner Studio

Cover Art by Herve Monjeaud

Tracks: 1- Break the Silence, 2- Destiny, 3- Sign of the Winner, 4- The World Will Be Better, 5- Condemned to Die, 6- The Angel, 7- Still Believe, 8- The Sandman, 9- Words of Change; 10- Until the End

An orchestral introduction opens this CD on the tracks "Break the Silence" before getting in the heavy metal universe of Heavenly (this first tracks is a really good instrumental piece). The music of the band goes along the path of bands like Stratovarius or Yngwie Malmsteen but with more predominance of the keyboards. In fact I like a lot the work of the keyboards that give a lot of epic touches to the music on this CD. I think the band has to rely on this more in order to achieve their identity (and maybe a little bit less on the vocals that are really similar to Kotipelto or Michael Kiske depending on the song...for example he reaches more originality in tracks like "The World Will Be Better"). This is a CD for heavy power metal lovers that like fast guitar runs along with a lot of epic melodies and fast drumming with a lot of double bass.

Favorite tracks: "Sign of the Winner", "Condemned to Die" and "The Sandman"

Contact: www.centurymedia.com