BRAINSTORM - Midnight Ghost
September 19, 2018, 6 years ago
(AFM)
12th studio album from the German power metallers, Midnight Ghost compliments the previously related themed Scary Creatures. For fans of the grittier vocals, less keyboards of peers Iced Earth, Jag Panzer, Grave Digger, and Running Wild, Brainstorm also focus on balancing between the speed and mid tempos, guitar melodies and vocals. With 4/5ths of the lineup consistent since 1999, Soul Temptation (2003) and Liquid Monster from ‘05 really saw these guys locking down their sound, formula, and hooks. Midnight Ghost carries on those elements fans will enjoy.
Fast and heavy “Devil’s Eye” is a standard romp that adds some complimenting keys and slows for the chorus. Piano begins “Revealing The Dark” and lays down the melody with reflective guitar soloing, and again backing keyboards serving the same purpose for “Ravenous Minds”. “The Pyre” is back to raging prior to a building more epic seven minute “Jean Boulet 1764”. “Inner Ghost” sits in a guitar riff groove , “When Pain Becomes” focuses on the vocal and harmonies, and “Four Blessings” is mid tempo pounder. As a closer “The Path” doesn’t quite fit the rest of the album’s flow and energy and would have been better half way through the sequencing.
