Label: SPV Records
Release date: 29.09.2017
Production: John Herrera
Album length: 44.45 min
Genre: Power Metal
»The Deviant Chord« marks the long-awaited comeback of cult American power metallers Jag Panzer, who seemed to have said their final goodbye back in 2011 after »The Scourge of the Light«. That album was actually their most commercially successful yet, at least by modern metal scene standards, but the costs of touring forced them into retirement once again. It looked like the end, but in 2013 the wheel of fortune turned the right way: the highly esteemed guitar virtuoso Joey Taffola, who last shredded strings with them on »The Fourth Judgment« (1997), returned to the Jag Panzer ranks after a long absence. That gave the rest of the band fresh vigor and convinced them to rise from the dead and head back into the studio after all this time. The result of the renewed creative partnership with Taffola in the lineup is »The Deviant Chord«, the best Jag Panzer album since the conceptual masterpiece »Thane To The Throne« (2000). The latter still remains the peak of their discography, but »The Deviant Chord« finally gives it a worthy successor. The albums in between, from 2001 to 2011, were all thoroughly solid if not outright great, but none of them managed to get back to the creative level of the late nineties/early 2000s.
»The Deviant Chord« is a surprisingly successful blend of the primal Jag Panzer sound the classic lineup laid down on the cult debut »Ample Destruction« (1984), the progressive, sometimes string-laced arrangements they’ve sworn by since returning to power metal in the mid-nineties, and modern production. Harry ‘The Tyrant’ Conklin is still one of the finest singers on the American metal scene. His voice is tricky to pin down, though. Picture Blaze Bayley (ex-Iron Maiden) with a far more technically polished, more elastic range and a less gloomy vocal approach, and you’ll get at least a rough idea. The rest of the band can count themselves lucky that Conklin decided to stay on in 2014, after they’d already announced they were looking for a new singer.
The guitar partnership between Taffola and Mark Briody runs like a well-oiled machine the whole way through, especially when they conjure up those trademark epic harmonies. Even though Taffola is a guitarist in the same virtuoso league as, say, Paul Gilbert and Tony MacAlpine, with whom he’s worked in the past as a solo musician, he doesn’t overdo it with solo ego trips, so nothing ever disrupts the epic structures of the individual songs. What sets Jag Panzer apart from most comparable power metal bands are the brilliantly placed string arrangements, which earned ‘right of residence’ in their music on select songs as far back as the late nineties. There are a bit more of them on »The Deviant Chord« than before, and just enough for individual songs to gain epic depth from a touch of symphonic, progressive flavor.
The opener, »Born of the Flame«, with its epic multi-part vocals, authoritative drum fills and melancholic guitar harmonies, already proves that the new Jag Panzer are in excellent shape. »Far Beyond All Fear« can already be called a genuine classic, a delicious cross between the classic heavy metal the band made in the eighties and epic power metal with a mighty chorus. The title track, where the melancholic string arrangements kick in for the first time on the album, is a proper Victorian drama with an extremely tense atmosphere. A calm intro gives way to a punchy build-up of drama, richly backed by mystical harmonized vocals, and it also features Taffola’s neoclassical soloing and one of ‘The Tyrant’s’ best vocal performances on »The Deviant Chord«. The more aggressive »Blacklist« sounds like it was written back in the eighties, too, while the epic harmonies are once again pure balm for all fans of manly, battle-ready power metal.
»Foggy Dew« is a cover of an Irish folk anthem that Jag Panzer turned into a great epic full of marching rhythms, where Conklin once again shows off his incredible vocal range, while the melodious, Celtic-tinged guitar harmonies are on a level Iron Maiden wouldn’t be ashamed of. »Divine Intervention« has the fantasy-medieval atmosphere Jag Panzer last wowed us with on the ‘Arthurian’ venture »The Age of Mastery« (1998) and the ‘Macbethian’ masterpiece »Thane to the Throne«, which is to say the albums where this song would easily fit stylistically. »Long Awaited Kiss« opens like a power ballad but soon picks up more epic shades, while the string arrangements are on par with the unforgettable classic »The Moors« from »The Age of Mastery«.
After the slightly ‘sleepy’ previous track comes the fully cranked-up »Salacious Behaviour«, where the band ‘fires on all cylinders’ for a perfect contrast, though there’s no shortage of melancholic harmonies and mighty multi-part vocals along the way. The superb overall impression of the album is rounded out by the adrenaline-fueled »Fire of Our Spirit«, where the epic vocal and guitar harmonies positively flourish while the rhythm section toils at full steam alongside venomous guitar passages, and by the closing ‘barbarian’ anthem »Dare«. The latter sounds like yet another forgotten »The Age of Mastery« or »Thane to the Throne« gem, which means it’s one of the highlights of »The Deviant Chord«: epic power metal in the truest sense of the word, conjuring up images of long-forgotten, mystical times, when real men still wielded swords to defend comely maidens and demonic beasts of every imaginable shape crawled across the world.
Jag Panzer have made a hugely successful return to the power metal scene. Anyone who swears by epic, manly and smart power metal will be more than thrilled with »The Deviant Chord«. It’s a thoroughly classic album with just the right dose of modern songwriting and production touches, which means it’s exactly what longtime fans want. Taffola was without a doubt the key factor that pulled the rest of the band out of their ‘retirement’ gloom and squeezed the best out of them, both in songwriting and in arrangements. A thumbs-up also goes to the vivid, inventive cover art, which looks like it was lifted straight out of a Spider-Man comic and shows a Victorian version of the unfortunate Dr. Curt Connors mid-transformation into the sinister Lizard.
author: Peter PodbrežniK
rating: 9.0 / 10
Track list:
1. Born of the Flame
2. Fary Beyond All Fear
3. The Deviant Chord
4. Blacklist
5. Foggy Dew
6. Divine Intervention
7. Long Awaited Kiss
8. Salacious Behaviour
9. Fire of Our Spirit
10. Dare
Line-up:
Harry ‘The Tyrant’ Conklin – vocals
Mark Briody – rhythm guitar, keyboards
Joey Taffola – lead guitar
John Tetley – bass, backing vocals
Rikard Stjernquist – drums
