Lion/Warner
This band or project includes the vocal talents of Göran Edman (ex. YNGWIE MALMSTEEN), Mark Boals (ex. YNGWIE MALMSTEEN), and Carsten Lizard” Schoulz (EVIDENCE ONE). But the band leader is a one Boguslaw Balcerak, a pole who started playing as late as at 16. Things seems to have moved rapidly in Warsaw since then but the difficult task of finding a suitable vocalist delayed them from 2007 onwards. The chosen chance invitation vocalists are apparently Boguslaw´s own favorites. To enhance their opportunities they got Andy LaRocque to master the album. The rest of the band is made up of bassists Kamil Wyzi and Tomek “Zawad” Dybalski, drummer Marcin “Kanclerz” Kwasny and keyboard player Lukasz Dybalski. Everything is described as killer, let´s check it out.
The declaration of plans, opener “Ante Bellum Overture” positively screams out that this will be neoclassical with a legion of guitar notes sprayed out. Carsten takes the mike in most of the tracks, starting with the title track. It is simply varied and has a reasonable refrain. Göran and Mark “debut” with “Grave of Love” and “Bard´s Tale respectively. Why they use a vocal experiment with a vocalist like Göran is a mystery but the song works fine, as goes for the well-arranged effort of Mark´s. But the precise masterpieces are not present. They get things rolling in “Warrior´s Moon”, with Carsten on vocals, easy listening with a great arrangement and a refrain that lingers. The guitar frenzied almost pompous style, the occasional lack of a working refrain (e.g. “Behind the Walls of Sadness”) or the awful vocals by Carsten (a surprise) in “Valley of the Dead” makes this look like hasty work, not like a project belated since 2007. The final track, “The healing hands of Destruction” features all three vocalists. It also sums up the album. They don´t really go all the way, it sounds overly complicated in spite of the best intentions. Why not Leave Yngwie to his own mishaps and try a slightly different route next time?
Track List
Ante Bellum Overture (Intro)
Blood of the Prophets
Grave of Love
Bard´s tale
Warrior´s Moon
Face of Destiny
The Heretic
Behind the Walls of Sadness
Angel of Divine
Valley of the Dead
When the Time Has Come
The Healing Hands of Destruction
www.lionmusic.com www.myspace.com/crylord
