Label: Frontiers Music Srl.
Release date: 06.03.2020
Production: Dennis Ward
Album length: 47.30
Genre: AOR / Melodic Rock
Rating: 8.0 / 10
Dennis Ward is a highly respected name on the European hard rock and metal scene, especially when the talk turns to sound engineering and the production of countless albums. The guy, a bassist by trade, was for many years one of the pillars of the German band Pink Cream 69, before recently becoming a full-fledged member of the cult British art rockers Magnum, with whom he put out the album »The Serpent Rings« earlier this year. Throughout his enviable music career, Ward has always been tangled up in collaborations across a whole pile of projects, whether Sunstorm with Joe Lynn Turner (Deep Purple, Rainbow), or Place Vendome with Michael Kiske (Helloween), with whom he later found a successful partnership in the band Unisonic.
The tirelessly busy musician also took the Khymera project under his wing many years ago. It was originally conceived as a collaboration between the Italian musician and producer Daniele Liverani and the legendary Kansas singer Steve Walsh, and under that name it racked up three albums: »A New Promise« (2005), »The Greatest Wonder« (2008) and »The Grand Design« (2015).
The special thing about Khymera, though, is that Dennis Ward himself tries his hand at the vocals here, having always been the guy handling backing vocals as a bassist. Whenever you caught him on stage, whether with Pink Cream 69, like back on 14.07.2007 in Veliko Ubeljsko, or with Unisonic, Dennis would always diligently cover the vocals too while playing bass. As a singer Ward is solid, good, but his vocal character just doesn’t have that dot on the “i” that would make you say Ward stands out among vocalists or belongs to the cream of the crop. He’s solid, but by no means outstanding. Especially not in the technical sense. The voice is clean to slightly gritty, and at times, especially in the higher registers, it could use a bit more breath and “gas,” but the man often balances that out very cleverly with choir-like vocal harmonies, which at the same time boost the atmospheric side of the heavily AOR-inspired songs. A quick orientation would point the compass needle at the following names: Icon, Signal, House Of Lords, Winger. For anyone who knows this project’s earlier work, »Master Of Illusions« picks up right where the story left off with its predecessor »The Grand Design«.
Musically, Khymera are a fortunate enough project to keep the average fan of AOR and modern “findings” in melodic rock interested for the whole runtime of the album. “Master Of Illusion” draws inspiration from the time-honored staples of AOR, hard rock and even glam metal, and the result is Ward’s vision of melodic rock, which is also seriously sharp on the production side and satisfyingly guitar-forward. There are production detours in favor of the keyboards on the album (After All This Time), but for the most part »Master Of Illusions« favors a production in which the guitars are firmly “pushed to the front.” Top-notch soloing on the album comes courtesy of the excellent Michael Kelin, whom you might know from Wicked Sensation and First Signal (a collaboration with Harry Hess of Harem Scarem), and who worked with Ward on the Place Vendome album »Close to the Sun« (2017).
Of course, Khymera aren’t reinventing the wheel on this album. But they do deliver a bundle of strong, evenly matched tracks that credibly keep this project alive. The songs hit a consistent level of quality that keeps the listener hooked through the whole album. Of course, we’re talking about those few surviving nostalgics for the eighties’ polish, who were looking for radio-friendly rock. But as said, with sharpened production and ultra-catchy musicality at the same time. In that sense it’s an extremely likable album, and thanks to its quality musical substance it quickly confirms that the addition of a musician and producer as good as Dennis Ward to Magnum contributed massively to the fact that even the legends’ latest album sounds surprisingly fresh.
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Walk Away
2. The First Time
3. Master Of Illusions
4. The Sun Goes Down
5. Paradise
6. The Rhythm Of My Life
7. Follow The Sun
8. Father To Son
9. After All This Time
10. Victim Of Your Love
11. Let It Happen
Line-up:
Dennis Ward – vocals, bass guitar
Michael Klein – guitar
Eric Ragno – keyboards
Pete Newdeck – drums
