Time Signature Brave warriors...

Genre: power metal

I like this album. Not because it's brilliant, original, groundbreaking, artistic, thought provoking, deep or anything like that. It's simply just good fun.

We are dealing with a sort of old-fashioned power metal from mythical times when musclebound metal warriors marched into battle, armed only with guitars, bass and drums (an no keyboards! [well, not a lot of keyboards]) and covered in oil, to defeat the hordes of the Dark Lady-Lord of the Poseurs.

Yes, you know what I'm getting at, right? Manowar! Even though Wizard are a German band, their style, on this album at least, has more in common with Manowar's more straightforward and no-nonsense approach to heavy metal than with the epic type of power metal that a lot of European bands play. Even the production, down to the distortion of the guitars, sounds like Manowar. There are elements from Teutonic power metal - primarily the pounding double bass drums. I guess that "Bound by Metal" could be described as a less sophisticated version of early Blind Guardian meets a steroid-abstinent version of Manowar.

And it's all great fun.

The vocalist Sven D'Anna does not, thankfully try to imitate, Eric Adams, but makes use of much more klichéed vocal techniques, and then he has a really thick German accent. But, hey, is there anything more metal than a thick German accent? No, I didn't think so.

But it's all great fun.

The lyrics are about all things metal such as epic battles, legendary warriors, swords and sorcery, vampires and, of course, powerful wizards, and then you have the obligatory songs that praise the might and glory of metal music.

Like I said - great fun.

Recommended to all fans of power metal. They will like this album, I think, for what it is.

All great fun.