Artist: Pell, Axel Rudi
Label: SPV Records
Release: 2002
Rating: 3/5
Up to the album “Black Moon Pyramide”, Axel was unfairly pegged as Germany’s Ritchie Blackmore. From that record on, though, every new release carved out a bit more room for him under the open sun. With his latest, “Shadow Zone”, Axel Rudi Pell has locked in a distinctive musical style rooted in hard rock that’s clear and instantly recognizable. But “hard rock” is just too loose a label here. Axel has metalized the sound to the extreme and given it a vampiric makeover. The guitar is venomous and damn alive.
That the guy is still hooked on the occult is proven once again by the cover, draped in dark blue-violet, with petrified crusaders and a light rising in the distance (a revelation?), all of it decked out in lettering that looks lifted from some “kabbalah” book. The lyrics, as always, are full of mysticism and black magic, but he also takes a few jabs at the cogs of Western European society (“The Edge Of The World” and “Under The Gun”).
The lyrics of these superbly polished songs literally spring to life, and the atmosphere hits its peak in the instrumental sections. Axel always takes his time and slowly weaves the drama. The keyboards perfectly cover the background of those instrumental parts, sometimes with the sound of organs too (“Live For The King”, “Time Of The Truth”, “Heartbreaker”, “Under The Gun”). So, the instrumental parts that carry the main solo (I mean that fast Axel hammering) always kick off with intros, followed by several passages where the melodies and the tempo of the song trade places, and the endings of these sections cleverly slide back into the main riff or melt into the chorus. It’s like having another song built inside the song. So don’t be surprised by the length of the individual tracks, because they fly by way too fast when you’re listening. “Under The Gun” is an excellent pick to close the record. It’s like going from hell to heaven. Axel wraps it up as a tribute to his idol J. Hendrix, using the opening motif of Hendrix’s “Purple Haze”, but playing it barely recognizably and in his own way. Through a wah effect, its final notes fade out in a wash of reverb and announce the end of the record. The circle closes, the story is told. That he left everything to feel really shows in, say, “Time of The Truth”, where the man would rather stay on fifths and wring the solo out with bends than fire off bursts of rapid-fire scales through his magic fingers. Genius!
And what about the rest of the band? Singer Johnny Gioeli, with his Bon Jovi-like timbre, has treated himself to a healthy dose of improvising with his raspy voice, which at the peaks (the choruses), especially in the higher registers, shifts into a full, clean vocal that keeps all its power. Perfect! Then there’s the king of the drums, Mike Terrana. He’s currently one of the most in-demand drummers around anyway, so I won’t go into why. The sound of his tuned drums, backed by a “fat” bass line, is full and gives the music extra breadth. Every one of Mike’s fills lands in exactly the right spot. The keyboards focus on laying down lines in the background, but they always get more intense, especially on the main riffs and choruses. All the instruments are totally expressive, which keeps “Shadow Zone” in a one-of-a-kind balance between atmospheric and lively. Sheer perfection!
Lineup
Johnny Gioeli – vocals
Axel Rudi Pell – guitar
Ferdy Doernberg – keyboards
Volker Krawczak – bass
Mike Terrana – drums
Production
Axell Rudi Pell
Track list
1. Curse of The Chains, The (Intro)
2. Edge Of The World
3. Coming Home
4. Live For The King
5. All The Rest Of My Life
6. Follow The Sign
7. Time Of The Truth
8. Heartbreaker
9. Saint Of Fools
10. Under The Gun
Album length: 61:00
