Time Signature I Am the Storm...

Genre: melodic heavy metal

"Ancestral Energy" is the sophomore effort by the American heavy metal act Artizan, and a follow-up to the 2011-debut "Curse of the Artizan". Their debut impressed the critics with its melodic approach and slightly progressive twist, combining accessibility and sophistication. They obviously had something to live up to.

Did they succeed? Yes, they certainly did. "Ancestral Energy" is characterized by the same sense of melody and accessibility as the debut, but it strikes me as being less progressive. While the debut might be compared to Queensrÿche at their best, "Ancestral Energy" reminds me more of Maiden's "Brave New World". The songs on "Ancestral Energy" are fairly long and sophsticated, consisting of several passages. The album as a whole is characterized by solid riffage and enhtralling melodies and is generally a joy to listen to. The Artizan-guys are definitely extremely silled songsmiths.

The musicianship is top notch across the board. I don't want to belittle the efforts of the other performing members of the band, but I am in particular impressed with vocalist Tom Braden and drummer Ty Tammeus. Braden's voice has the same clarity as on the debut, but a slightly rwer edge. He really delivers the goods. Tammeus' drumming is both solid and organic at the same time, full of small details - much like Scott Rockenfied's style.

Fans of melodic and sophisticated metal with lots of hooks and lots of elements from both traditional metal and the more melodic branch of power metal should check out this album.

Kev Rowland This is the second album from this Florida based outfit, but it is the first time I have come across them, and yet again I am discovering a band that I wish I had known from the beginning as this is quite an album. If you enjoy melodic power metal with hints of symphonic then this is the one for you. The drums are a little higher in the mix than one might normally expect from music of this genre, but given that drummer Ty formed the group back in 2008 he can be forgiven as the end result is something that is polished and clean. It hasn’t had all of the rough edges smoothed over though, and there is never a fear of this dropping into AOR as there is just too much energy and passion for that. Ty Tammeus used to be in Leviathan and he has brought in his bandmate from those those days, Tom Braden, to provide the vocals while the line-up is completed by Shamus McConney (guitars) and Jon Jennings (bass).

While Iron Maiden and Helloween are musical references, so is Symphony X and Rhapsody, in an album that is a delight from start to end. The final song is the title cut, and it stretches out to more than ten minutes with Matt Barlow (ex-Iced Earth) making an appearance. It starts off slow and atmospheric but gradually builds into something that is both dramatic and impressive with plenty of riffs to go with the emotion. Well worth investigating www.puresteel-records.com