Lords Of Black II cd review

Lords Of Black release their second album II through Frontiers Records Srl on March the 18th.

I will be honest and say I knew nothing about the band or the first album until the press release telling us that vocalist Ronnie Romero was going to be the voice of Ritchie Blackmore's comeback gigs playing Rainbow and Deep Purple songs for this summer 4 dates.

With the press release telling us that he was a cross between Ronnie James Dio and Freddie Mercury you instantly want to listen to it to see any comparison.

Over the course of 11 tracks he puts in a superb vocal performance with a hard hitting range that suits the music of Lords Of Black perfectly but comparisons to the 2 legendary names will have to wait until the shows with Ritchie Blackmore.

Lords Of Black play a heavy modern melodic metal with plenty of melody and the cd sounds a million dollars with a superb sound from Roland Grapow (Masterplan,ex Helloween)who co produced mixed and mastered the cd.

Merciless kicks off the cd in ferocious fashion with a heavy metal riff from guitarist Tony Hernando and machine gun drumming from Andy C with Romero at the top end of his range as the song blasts through my speakers.Superb lengthy fiery fast fingered guitar solo from Hernando.

Only One Life Away sees a double bass drum assault after a complex guitar and drum intro before a big guitar melody line.

In comparison to the Circus Maximus cd also released this month Lords Of Black songs seem to to fit into a couple of styles.

Verging on heavy metal or power metal with bombastic overtones they have the all out heavy rockers like Live By Te Lie,Die By The Truth or Shadows Of War where there is a huge guitar riff and double bass drumming with Romero at the top of his range and Hernando's fiery guitar soloing.

Then there are the mid tempo stompers like Insane,Ghost Of You and Cry No More where the pace drops a little with stop start guitar riffs and a bit more of a groove than all out power.

And a couple of songs have keys as intro like Everything Your Not and New World's Comin' where the keys are a bit more prominent and a little bit of light and shade to break up the all out ferocious assault.

In my opinion a little bit more variation brings out the quality of the songs and stops a feel of heard this before.

Lords Of Black II is a good album and with Romero's increased profile it will be interesting to see if the Rainbow gig opens more doors for him and his band.

As well as seeing whether the summer shows with Ritchie Blackmore are fantastic or a car crash waiting to happen.