by Justin Gaines
– Sr. Columnist —
German Heavy Power Metal band Mystic Prophecy returned earlier this year with a new album, their ninth overall, titled War Brigade. It’s an apt title for an album by a band that’s been waging their heavy, intense campaign on the Power Metal scene for 15 years now.
If the previous eight Mystic Prophecy albums have taught us anything, it’s that you can always count on this band to deliver simple, straightforward, and heavy as hell Power Metal albums full of dark themes. They certainly don’t disappoint with War Brigade, an intense collection of stomping, snarling power metal war anthems. Songs like “Metal Brigade,” “Pray For Hell,” “Good Day to Die” and “War Panzer” give you a very good idea of this album’s character. It’s the best collection of war songs this side of a Sabaton album. They close the album with an oddball cover of Tom Jones’s “Sex Bomb,” which is way more fun than it has a right to be.
Now, the downside of Mystic Prophecy’s reliability is that they’re also predictable. This is a band that gives us very few surprises. But when the music is this good, and the songs this rousing, it’s kind of hard to complain. Yeah, War Brigade is “business as usual,” but it’s also a heavy, catchy power album with a lot of staying power that will make you want to raise your fist for metal. It helps that vocalist Robero Liapakis has turned in one of the better performances of his career here.
War Brigade is yet another rock-solid Power Metal album from a band that really never gets the attention they deserve. If you like your power metal on the darker, heavier side, especially bands like Brainstorm, Iron Savior, Powerwolf, Sabaton, Jag Panzer and even Iced Earth, Mystic Prophecy is a band you need to hear, and War Brigade makes for one hell of an introduction.
Genre: Power Metal
Band:
Roberto Liapakis (v)
Markus Pohl (g)
Laki Ragazas (g)
Connie Andreszka (b)
Tristan Maiwurm (d)
Track Listing:
1. Follow the Blind
2. Metal Brigade
3. Burning Out
4. The Crucifix
5. Pray For Hell
6. 10,000 Miles Away
7. Good Day To Die
8. The Devil is Back
9. War Panzer
10. Fight For One Nation
11. War of Lies
12. Sex Bomb
Label: Massacre Records
Website: www.mysticprophecy.net
Hardrock Haven rating: 8.5/10
