Book of Reflections is one of the many projects of guitar shredder & Lion Music founder Lars Eric Mattsson, and Relentless Fighter is their first release in quite a few years. Joining the guitar hero are drummer Christer Jansson and vocalists Markku Kuikka & Casten "Lizard" Schulz. Together they've created another slab of melodic power/progressive metal with a healthy dose of neo-classical speed metal for good measure.
Let's face it, Relentless Fighter is not going to re-write the metal playbook or anything like that, as this sort of music has been done before, but Mattsson has always been able to craft catchy tunes and throw in plenty of bombast and exciting guitar work. Here, he also handles the bass and keyboards, so expect a great deal of mindblowing guitar & synth duels on tracks such as "Until the Day" and "Angel Shed a Tear" which come right out of the Rainbow/Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force school of progressive power metal. Vocally, both Kuikka and Schulz are right on the mark, delivering the sort of soaring passages you would expect from a project of this nature. I like when the band slow things up on the grinding "Somewhere Else to Be" a song with some great heavy riffs and passionate vocals. And make no mistake about it, Mr. Mattsson can flat out play, so expect some serious six-string wizardry all throughout this album.
For many though, the lack of originality here is going to be a turnoff, as this style has been done to death by the Ring of Fires and Artensions of the world for the last few decades, but Mattsson has been going strong with this neo-classical metal bag for quite some time now, and well, he's damn good at it.
Track Listing
1. Until the Day
2. Dance With the Devil
3. Angel Shed a Tear
4. Bleeding Dry
5. Rise Up!
6. Crashing Through
7. Somewhere Else to Be
8. Gates to Oblivion
9. Keep us Afloat
10. Without My Angel
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