German Metallers Seventh Avenue are ready with their fifth album, this being my first meeting with the band. The guys play classic Metal, topped off with a bit of happy-go-lucky Power Metal, as so many do it today, with happy melodies, fast drumming, screaming guitars and so on and so forth.

Songs like Remission with it's catchiness and great flow, the emotional ballad Voices the rocking Domination Of Sin and Infinite King with it's great refrain and a forceful, classic Metal feeling to it, show that the band are able to pull it off in a successful way. These tracks are the great stuff here!

The not-so-great stuff includes tracks like Raging Fire, Juggler Of Words and the titletrack, that all seem far too simple and easily forgotten, plus the fact that the music feels a bit like the same and the same all over again, especially the drums lack some variation, just like the happy Power Metal guitar riffs are very alike throughout the record. There's nothing challenging the listener on the record, and to just play straight ahead, unoriginal Power Metal in a successful way, takes some stronger material than most of what the disc provides.

So, what makes these guys stand out from the flock? Not much, put aside the lyrics about God, Jesus, forgiveness and the whole spectre of the Christian faith. What gets a little tiring about these sorts of White Metal bands is that they, like some of their Satanic counterparts, have the same topic for ALL songs without exception! For some this would be a huge turnoff, as the lyrics are very worshipful and convinced Christian, but I clearly prefer this topic to overly-satanic oh-so-evil nonsense.

The technical ability of the band is all fine, and I like the singer, Herbie Langhans, who has a very classical Metal highpitch with lots of soul and nerve. On some tracks he reminds me a little about Ronnie Atkins (Pretty Meids), and his voice has a great, rough sound to it.

Unfortunately I feel like this record shows potential for something more, and would have made a great debut, but the problem is that this is Seventh Avenue's fifth album. Now, I am not familiar with any of their other works, but I guess they probably won't evolve anymore than they already have, which is a shame, because the record drowns among all the other "good-but-not-great" records existing in this style.
There are a few killer tracks, like the ones I mentioned, lots of standard stuff, but no real bad songs. I bet some die hard Power Metallers are bound to find some good stuff here, but I would say, there's a lot of stuff out there as good as this, or better.

Listen before buying.

Written by Nina
Monday, December 20, 2004
Show all reviews by Nina

Ratings

Nina: 5.5/10

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Comments and member reviews

Comment by Marcel (Anonymous) - Tuesday, December 21, 2004

I would rate it with 8/10 Better than their good previous Album and with such amazing songs "Eternals" and "Future Tale". The Lyrics are very good imo.And who cares that the topic is the same in all songs?Other Bands only have the Dragon and Sword Theme in all their songs...And?

Comment by Peter (Anonymous) - Tuesday, December 21, 2004

I would give it 7/10.

Comment by Marco (Anonymous) - Thursday, January 13, 2005

8/10 The lyrics are cool, these guys mean what they are singing. And the band hasn't evolved? Listen the two previous albums and you no better!

Comment by Nina - RevelationZ (Anonymous) - Friday, January 14, 2005

@ Marco. I didn't say they havn't evolved, as I know nothing of their material prior to this, I just said when a band has made five records, they probably won't evolve so much more AFTER this. The evolution of a band most often happen within the first three albums or not at all.

Comment by Wolv (Anonymous) - Tuesday, March 15, 2005

I would rate it with 9/10

Comment by Metal_Forever (Anonymous) - Friday, March 18, 2005

You should have heard a little bit more!. At least 9/10.