Label: AFM Records
Release date: December 4, 2020
Production: Dushan Petrossi
Album length: 61.01 min
Genre: Power Metal
Rating: 8.5/10
After four years, Iron Mask are back with their seventh studio album overall, “Master of Masters.” The artist behind the cover took inspiration from linking the word “mask” to the current state of the world’s (dis)order, and came up with a piece that, conceptually, fleetingly recalls the cover of the evergreen Running Wild album “Masquerade”! (1995). Stylistically, of course, the two bands are pretty far from each other. Among other things, the album is a reflection on the state the world is in, and it carries a socially critical note.
Well, there’s not a whole lot of philosophizing with these Belgian baroque symphonic power metallers. Guitarist Dushan Petrossi still holds all the reins, and he’s written a ton of material for the new album: eleven songs, one interlude and 61 minutes of new music in total. The newcomer is vocalist Mike Slembrouck, and let’s hope he sticks around in the quartet for more than just one album. His vocals are powerful, with the explosiveness and authority you want, enough to stand up to Petrossi’s lead lines and his guitar fanaticism, which in all its supersonic glory doesn’t just stun but keeps hammering home that the guy was heavily inspired by Yngwie J. Malmsteen back in the day.
“Master of Masters” may well be the most mature achievement in the career of a band that started a good 18 years ago. Had it come out back then, it would be considered a standout power metal release of 2002 today. Especially when it comes to the production, which is brilliant. The album is packed with detailed arrangements where neo-classical elements shake hands peacefully with heavy/power metal ingredients, and the compositions mostly hit an exceptionally theatrical bombast and a high level of musical hunger. At the same time, they never feel one-dimensional or stiff. Especially in the first half of the album, the band managed to string together a bundle of songs with remarkably well-judged chorus melodies, which skillfully tame the deliberate (baroque) excess of all the orchestral bits and the solo storms of a thoroughly unhinged Petrossi on guitar.
The only problem is, once again, the running time. The album is too long. By ten minutes at the very least. There are moments that start to drag. That goes for the ballad “A Mother Loved Blue,” which feels syrupy and forced, goes nowhere, and next to the livelier parts of the album is basically a gray mouse. In a similar vein, the “vocal exercise” in “Mist of Loch Ness” gets watery or even irritating. So. All in all, an album like this can hardly ever be bad. But it’s always over the top. The only question is how much over the top. And even though excess is basically one of the artist’s trademarks on albums like this – and that obviously goes for Y. J. Malmsteen’s releases too – an album like this ends up at best being annoying because of too much excess.
So this four-year break, with a pile of well-sharpened ideas that – despite a fixed and predictable songwriting template – reach a satisfying level of variety in the album’s dynamics, delivers one of Iron Mask’s most mature releases, and certainly a new career high since “Black As Death” (2011).
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Never Kiss the Ring (5:43)
2. Tree of the World (4:47)
3. Revolution Rise (4:28)
4. One Against All (5:31)
5. Nothing Lasts Forever (9:02)
6. Dance with the Beast (5:31)
7. Wild and Lethal (4:31)
8. Mist of Loch Ness (5:38)
9. My One and Only (3:54)
10. A Mother Loved Blue (4:25)
11. Sagittarius A (1:42)
12. Master of Masters (5:45)
Line-up:
Dushan Petrossi – guitars, orchestrations
Mike Slembrouck – vocals
Vassili Moltchanov – bass guitar
Ramy Ali – drums
Guests:
Oliver Hartmann – vocals
