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The Age Of Mystery Jag Panzer |
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This album could be described as 'Progressive Heavy Glam Metal', as the music and vocals have the characteristics of all of those genres. The rhythm style is heavy and powerful; the lead guitar has the typically Progressive/Glam/80's quality to it (high pitched with fiddly guitar solo's) and the vocalist has a powerful, high and sometimes almost operatic sound to his voice. There is a great range of songs on the album - each song contains something different, and sometimes, unexpected. The first song had a powerful, all male, choir assisting in the chorus; many others have orchestral overtones; and one of the songs near the end was like something out of one of those dodgy, low budget, medieval fighting movies (Conan The Barbarian, Red Sonja etc), with choirs, powerful orchestral music and booming drums and percussion. At first I was very dubious of this album, with it's glam overtones, but the more I listened to it, the more I liked it. The vocals reminding me of the early thrash and glam that I was once so fond of. It doesn't fit into any particular style, which is what made it enjoyable - definitely worth a listen to. This CD is released
by Century Media Records. Review by Mark Everest |
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Mechanized Warfare
Jag Panzer |
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Old school Metal warriors Jag Panzer continue in their resurgent quest to claim the throne ("Thane to the…" not exactly) they might've been ready to accept had they not crumbled into a deadening state of dysfunction only a few albums into what should have been an illustrious career… A true early '80s phenomenon went South but the flame kept burning, a decade of dying embers would soon burn brightly again in the early nineties, Jag Panzer was thrust upon the world again. Steeped in the Metal tradition, like the many who've come, gone and thrived today, from today, JP was born seemingly ages ago and rekindle nothing that they didn't help shape in the first place. Their fourth LP for the Century Media label is their best yet, far surpassing the still grounded "Fourth Judgement," and the increasingly timely follow ups, though "Thane to the Throne" modeled after Shakespeare's "Macbeth" was vintage in its own right but I don't believe it contained quite the flexibility or the dynamics an album like this is afforded. Played with a style and essence usually left for struggling oldies with no where but their past to turn to, JP's sound rings true Metal to the extremes-"Take To The Sky," the soaring opening track that captures the power and spirit of a jetfighter making its final rounds… "Frozen In Fear," "Unworthy," a majestically settled epic backed by glorious chants, in an ode to the fallen brother-like tradition… the power rises once more for the riff-blazing "The Silent," varied but usually mid-tempo, the combined talents of Briody and Broderick trading off in an ax-wielding battle for supremacy that listeners are only too happy to call a draw… The album does hit a lull proceeding "The Scarlet Letter's" jagged-edge, slows up, drones a bit before that piercing look returns to the eye of the shooter-"Power Surge," picks up steam, flattens everything in its path, then roars off into the distance, giving way to the sentimentally drawn "All Things Renewed." Jag Panzer's latest is like a metal storm crashing down on the already burning village below-many will run, some will stay and fight, but few will forget the relentless show of force once "Mechanized Warfare" was unleashed. This CD is released
by Century Media Records. Review by Vinnie Apicella
[va85@columbia.edu] |