siLLy puPPy PHARAOH seems to be a popular band name but this US power metal act emerged from Philadelphia in 1997 and is best known as the band that scored the incredible vocal talents of Tim Aymar who had dazzled the world with his strong vocal performances with Death’s Chuck Schuldiner in Control Denied which unfortunately was Schuldiner’s last project before his untimely passing. This PHARAOH (as opposed to the New Jersey sludge metal band) has also been fortunate to have worked with other metal greats such as Chris Poland (OHM, Megadeth) and Mike Wead of King Diamond fame.

This band has kept a fairly stable lineup since its inception and still cranking out albums over two decades later. This debut AFTER THE FIRE was released in 2003 and found the band hitting the ground running as a fully fueled power metal band that hit its stride right from the start. This debut didn’t exactly reinvent the power metal wheel and certainly wasn’t the most innovative or forward thinking album but where the originality lacks, the quartet of Tim Aymar (vocals), Matt Johnsen (guitars), Chris Kerns (bass) and Chris Black (drums) succeeded in generating nine exquisite tracks of heavy metal inspired power metal.

Lurking somewhere between the classic metal traditions of Iron Maiden, Dio, Saxon and other progenitors of the melodic metal of yore along with the more energetic power fueled metal bands such as Angra, Helloween and Running Wild, PHARAOH hit all the right notes on its debut AFTER THE FIRE and continues to deliver satisfying returns to the present. After proving himself with the more progressively infused power metal with Control Denied, Aymar effortlessly delivers some of the best power metal vocal performances of the genre and all of that includes this debut album despite this album remaining a bit overlooked and under appreciated int he band’s overall discography.

What makes good power metal is all here in abundance, namely frenetic high speed tempos, thundering guitar and bass riffing, powerful percussive drive and highly melodic epic compositions that recount battle scenes fueled with fantasy and fury. The band does an excellent job at balancing the elements of instrumentation with vocals and the metal of yore tributes are updated to reflect the energetic flow of the era it was released. In many ways this album reminds me of what a Dio album would’ve sounded if the band accompanying Ronnie James happened to be Helloween or Lost Horizon. The tempos rampage throughout with only small respites of acoustic guitar and slower moments for contrast’s sake.

While i personally prefer originality to cookie cutter songwriting, i have to admit that when a band does such a stellar task in crafting music that nails a style of music on all fronts then i’m a true sucker for its gravitational pull and while a lot of power metal can become a little cheesy when taken to extremes, somehow PHARAOH succeeded in keeping that metal grit in place while offering some of the most instantly addictive melodic ear worms the power metal universe has to offer. So all in all definitely not the most original metal album of all time especially coming from the excellent short-lived Control Denied standpoint but a satisfying perfectly executed US power metal album for sure.

adg211288 The Powers That Be (2021) is the fifth full-length studio album by US power metal act Pharaoh. It has been almost a whole decade since we last got an album from Pharaoh, that being Bury the Light (2012), so The Powers That Be is very much a comeback release even though the band has never been officially inactive during that time. The same band line-up is still in place as well, that of Tim Aymar (vocals), Matt Johnsen (guitars), Chris Kerns (bass) and Chris Black (drums). Pharaoh have been rocking this same line-up since before their first studio album, After the Fire (2003).

When a band falls off the radar for whatever reason, there must surely be a lot riding on their comeback. No band wants to go almost ten years without new material for their fans to say something like 'we waited this long, for this?' There should be no danger of this happening to Pharaoh however, as they haven't just delivered a great album with The Powers That Be, they've got something here that may just be their best album to date.

The sound of the album is unmistakeably that of Pharaoh, but this is a Pharaoh that feels somewhat rawer and harder than we've heard previously. They have always existed more on the melodic end of the USPM genre, with plenty of Iron Maiden-esque classic heavy metal influences also coming into play, while Bury the Light also saw them referencing seventies hard rock, but The Powers That Be seems to exist to make a big impact: riffy USPM, hitting hard and fast across the duration of the nine new tracks. There's a progressive sensibility and complexity in there as well, blended with aggressive playing to perfection to result in an album that not only seems like Pharaoh are screaming 'we're back!', they're screaming 'we're back, bigger and better than ever before'. To top this off, the changes in sound seem to suit the voice of Tim Aymer more than ever.

The Powers That Be is an album that was well worth the wait and a tremendous pay off for Pharaoh. That said, I really hope it also marks a return to some sort of regularity for them, since based on this, we definitely need this band to stick around. An album of the year 2021 contender for me.

Warthur Pharaoh's The Longest Night finds the band wearing their Iron Maiden influence on their sleeve - but that's no bad thing, given that adding a pinch of Iron Maiden to the group's customary power metal style is hardly unwelcome. Similar enough to their inspirations to appeal to most listeners who with similar tastes (and what metal fan doesn't like Maiden?), but distinct enough in their own personality (they are a bit less progressive and a bit more inclined to all-out attack than Maiden), Pharaoh may well have crafted the best release of their career here, a release just as powerful and flashy as the explosive cover art suggests.

Warthur Pharaoh's Be Gone is a reasonably competent power metal effort which will probably tickle the fancy of hardcore power metal fans but may struggle to reach those of us who have somewhat more mixed feelings about the genre. Tim Aymar's vocals are a little bit more rough around the edges and aggressive than is typical for this sort of power metal, but his general delivery and the tone of the song still tends towards the sort of cheesy singalong material which makes so much power metal a love-it-or-hate-it affair; on top of that, except for the slightly more ambitiously structured Burial At Sea, most of the songs tend to blend together - it's not the most diverse album even within the parameters of the power metal style it's presented in.

optisailor2002 USA's Pharaoh this year releases their fourth full length album, Bury the Light. Having already released 3 overall pretty well-received full length albums and almost 15 years of playing experience, this band is certainly not one that is new to the metal genre, containing members that have been involved in bands like Nachtmysticum and famed Death frontman Chuck Schuldiner's Control Denied, leaving me with high expectations despite this being my first encounter with Pharaoh.

Unlike their 2010 EP Ten Years, Bury the Light opens strongly, with catchy and high-energy riffs on Leave me Here to Dream, and the band also does not hesitate to show off the members' talents on their instruments, with bassist Chris Kerns immediately given a short lead spot. The vocals of Tim Aymar is immediately recognisable, strong and raspy, and it sounds almost as if he hasn't aged and his voice has not deteriorated even by a bit since his works with Control Denied, and this remains as one of the personal highlights of the album as evident on tracks like Castles in the Sky where he pushes his vocal limits, despite its relatively low mix in the album compared to the other instruments. Softer moments on the album such as the acoustic section on The Year of the Blizzard also lets Aymar's vocals shine. The music on the album is mostly a melodic style of heavy/power metal, and suffice to say, Tim Aymar's vocals certainly fits the bill on an album like this, backed by a competent instrumental section.

Unfortunately, despite containing numerous outstanding musicians, the band falters on the songwriting aspect, and while many tracks contain a number of different styles and could have been a good idea if executed nicely enough, they tend to get slightly overused at times and easily bore the listener by introducing too many different elements on a single track, making this album to be slightly difficult to digest on the first few listens despite its melodic qualities. Even softer tracks like The Year of the Blizzard can get pretty hard to listen to. At times, the transition between different styles also end up sounding awkward, such as the transition between heavy and more melodic moments on tracks like Leave me Here to Dream and The Wolves, making it sound as if the band were unsure about which direction they want to take. There are also moments when the different instruments sound slightly incoherent and out of pace with each other, and this definitely affects the flow and enjoyment of the album.

Bury the Light is perhaps one of the more unconventional power metal albums that I have listened to of late, and while the inclusion of numerous styles could border the band on progressive metal territory, this album is certainly not for the casual power metal fan looking for a catchy power metal album, and could instead be more satisfying for someone looking for something slightly more technical and progressive than your everyday power metal.

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