MELANCHOLY BEAST

"Melancholy Beast" is the debut studio album by Danish power metal act Pyramaze. The album was released in May 2004 by Nightmare / Massacre Records. "Melancholy Beast" is produced by prolific Danish metal producer Jacob Hansen (Invocator, Maceration, Aborted, Raunchy, Volbeat, Hatesphere, Týr, The Arcane Order, Anubis Gate, Beyond Twilight, Pestilence, Axamenta, Mercenary, Communic...etc). The regular version features nine tracks while the Japanese version features a tenth song called "The Wizard".

The lineup on "Melancholy Beast" consists of three Danes in founding member Michael Kammeyer on guitars, Morten Gade Sørensen on drums and Niels Kvist on bass. In addition to the three Danes Pyramaze also hosts two Americans in Jonah Weingarten on keyboards (whom Michael Kammeyer met over the internet) and Lance King (formerly of Balance of Power) on vocals. So this is a multinational act even though the backbone of the band is Danish.

The music on "Melancholy Beast" is melodic heavy metal/ power metal with lots of keyboards, high pitched vocals, anthemic choruses, a tight rythm section which includes lots of double bass drums and some pretty heavy guitars. The first impression is that it´s "business as usual" power metal. So it very much comes down to the how well the tracks are crafted and the interplay between the musicians. In that department there´s nothing wrong with "Melancholy Beast". This is a very well composed heavy metal/ power metal album and Pyramaze have a distinct and greatly skilled vocalist in Lance King. He´s got a sligth Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden) vibe to his vocals that I greatly enjoy. He can sing both soft and pretty raw. A great asset to the band´s sound. Another great feature is the guitar and keyboard solos that are really well played.

The production by Jacob Hansen is professional, powerful and suits the material well.

"Melancholy Beast" is a solid heavy metal/ power metal album and while it certainly isn´t a revelation in any way it´s still an enjoyable release deserving a 3.5 star rating.

The debut Pyramaze album finds the Danish unit offering a style of prog-tinged power metal which won't be new to many listeners; right down to Lance King's Bruce Dickinson/Geoff Tate-esque vocal delivery, the various ingredients of this musical mix have been brought together in a broadly similar fashion by many groups before and since, and Melancholy Beast doesn't do very much we haven't heard before. If you are addicted to this style of music and simply cannot get enough of it, it may be worth a look, but otherwise you aren't likely to come back to this very often after hearing it once. Competent, but not transcendent.