{"id":38480,"date":"2014-03-19T07:09:05","date_gmt":"2014-03-19T12:09:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=38480"},"modified":"2014-03-19T07:09:05","modified_gmt":"2014-03-19T12:09:05","slug":"pretty-maids-louder-than-ever-cd-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2014\/pretty-maids-louder-than-ever-cd-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Pretty Maids | Louder Than Ever<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist\/News Editor —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"PrettyLong running Danish melodic metal band Pretty Maids has been on a hot streak lately. Since 2010 they\u2019ve released two amazing new studio albums (2010\u2019s Pandemonium<\/em> and 2013\u2019s Motherland<\/em>), a killer live CD\/DVD set (2012\u2019s It Comes Alive) and now they\u2019re back with a new collection of songs titled Louder Than Ever<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Louder Than Ever<\/em> is an interesting release. There are 12 songs total (assuming you don\u2019t shell out the big bucks for the Japanese import). Eight of them are re-recorded versions of older Pretty Maids songs, and not the songs you\u2019d expect like \u201cFuture World\u201d or \u201cRed, Hot and Heavy.\u201d They\u2019ve reworked songs from their \u201890s Masacre releases (which are all in desperate need of a good reissue campaign, by the way). I don\u2019 think fans were exactly clamoring for new versions of \u201cPsycho Time Bomb Planet Earth\u201d and \u201cVirtual Brutality,\u201d but it is interesting enough to hear them in the hands of the new lineup and new producer.<\/p>\n

The remaining four songs on Louder Than Ever<\/em> are what fans are really going to be interested. They are brand new recordings that, unsurprisingly, carry forward the powerful and melodic aspects that made Pandemonium<\/em> and Motherland<\/em> such amazing albums. There are two songs – \u201cNuclear Boomerang\u201d and \u201cDeranged\u201d that are straight-up headbanging heavy metal numbers, and two very soulful ballads in \u201cMy Soul To Take\u201d and \u201cA Heart Without a Home.\u201d They\u2019re all great songs, and definitely whet the appetite for a new Pretty Maids studio album.<\/p>\n

With any other band you\u2019d be justified in writing a collection like this off as a quick way to fulfill contract obligations with the label, and that may be the case here. But this is Pretty Maids we\u2019re talking about, so even a collection of reworked \u201890s songs is still going to sound awesome, especially when accompanied by four strong new recordings. At minimum you need to download (legally, please) the four new songs, but the true Pretty Maids fans are going to want to pick this set up. There\u2019s enough here, especially when you factor in the extras on the physical release, to make it a worthwhile, if perhaps not essential, purchase.
\nEdition Notes: The physical release of Louder Than Ever<\/em> comes in a digipack with a bonus DVD featuring a Motherland<\/em> tour retrospective as well as vintage footage and interviews plus additional material. We were given an MP3 version of the album, so this review doesn\u2019t address the DVD content.<\/p>\n

Genre: Melodic Metal, Melodic Rock, Heavy Metal<\/p>\n

Band:
\nRonnie Atkins (v)
\nKen Hammer (g)
\nMorten Sandager (k)
\nRene Shades (b)
\nAllan Tschicaja (d)<\/p>\n

Track Listing:
\n1.\tDeranged*
\n2.\tPlaying God
\n3.\tPsycho-Time-Bomb-Planet-Earth
\n4.\tMy Soul To Take*
\n5.\tHe Who Never Lived
\n6.\tVirtual Brutality
\n7.\tTortured Spirit
\n8.\tWith These Eyes
\n9.\tNuclear Boomerang*
\n10.\tSnakes in Eden
\n11.\tWake Up to the Real World
\n12.\tA Heart Without a Home*<\/p>\n

Label: Frontiers Records<\/p>\n

Website: www.prettymaids.dk<\/a><\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven rating: 8.5\/10<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Justin Gaines – Senior Columnist\/News Editor — Long running Danish melodic metal band Pretty Maids has been on a hot streak lately. Since 2010 they\u2019ve released two amazing new studio albums (2010\u2019s Pandemonium and […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":38539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10848],"tags":[2317,374,2491,8980,3439,2901,1108],"class_list":{"0":"post-38480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcrvws2014","8":"tag-cd-review","9":"tag-frontiers-records","10":"tag-heavy-metal","11":"tag-louder-than-ever","12":"tag-melodic-metal","13":"tag-melodic-rock","14":"tag-pretty-maids"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}