Review: Mike LePond's Silent Assassins- Pawn and Prophecy
Power Metal is a hard subgenre to keep fresh nowadays.
Often it either suffer from too many surrendering to modern metal trappings and will subsequently lose or muddle it's identity, (especially in modern times, where there is an often over emphasis on very sterile, overly-quantized production), it can reek of cliches,
samey sounding songs, and a general lack of imagination can make it a challenge to keep original.
Mike LePond's Silent Assassins are a newer Power Metal project, with their first album released in 2014, and their new album, "Pawn and Prophecy", released earlier this year.
As their press release describes:
“Mike LePond's Silent Assassins is pure Classic Metal with lyrics based on Mythology, Literature and History from Symphony X bassist, Mike LePond and friends. Sound has been compared to Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Manowar, Black Sabbath, Blind Guardian, White Wizard.
Mike LePond's Silent Assassins, an onslaught of raw and true HEAVY METAL in it's purest form. His second release, "Pawn and Prophecy", is a full hour of headbanging riffs, kick ass vocals and epic tales. It is an album that draws influences from the classic heavy bands of the 1980s, all the way to the viking/folk metal of today. It was made "for" metalheads, "by" metalheads. A celebration of the power and glory of that which we call........Heavy Metal.”
That is quite a mouthful, and let's find out if it follows through with it's promise, as well as if they provide something original.
This is the second “solo” album by a Symphony X member released this year, the other being guitarist Michael Romeo's excellent and underrated second solo release, “War of the Worlds Part 1”.
The first thing I noticed about the album were the vocals. I was familiar with singer Alan Tecchio before, mainly from his time in Tech-Metal giants Watchtower, but on this album he takes a somewhat more restrained approach than in much of his tenure in that band, leaving the super high parts to selective moments. His vocals almost remind me of someone like Jeff Scott Soto meets Graham Bonnet with a touch of classic Ian Gillan, and this a welcome approach on this album.
“Masters of the Hall”, with it's viking metal lyrics, begins the album with some Manowar meets a touch of Symphony X style greatness. It's welcome to hear unabashed love of the loinclothed ones in this era (even when some of the controversy with that band with the sad news about Karl Logan), and the song has the anthemic sounds to qualify as a good opening cut. It follows with “Black Legend:, a more Priest or Accept styled mid paced basher.
The next song, "Antichrist" is a more slightly progressive in it's more dissonant riff, with an almost swingy beat to propel the verses.
The vocals also remind me a bit of Midnight's in Crimson Glory, at least in regards to the melodies.
“I Am The Bull” has a lead bass riff that recalls vintage Joey Demaio (Manowar again) if he chose that day to play something more evil sounding. In fact, being as the leader of this band is a bassist, it's pleasant to hear such a prominent role of the instrument in this project. LePond has a lot of cool lines in Symphony X, though sometimes with the nature of the band's music the lines are not as heard as clearly as here. And being as lead bass parts are mainly known in bands like Manowar or Iron Maiden it may not surprise the reader that LePond has also been involved with Manowar's former guitarist's (Ross The Boss's) solo band.
“Avengers of Eden” recalls bands like Rainbow or Helloween with it's classic power metal speed and riffs, and come chorus time it even resembles classic old school Symphony X in a way.
“Hordes of Evil” is after that, and it resembles modern Judas Priest or even “Louder Than Hell” era Manowar in a way.
Next we have a ballad with flamenco style guitars- “The Mulberry Tree” has a folksy, epic feel to it, that wouldn't be out of place on a Rodrigo y Gabriela album come solo time (awesome change of pace).
The last song is “Pawn and Prophecy”, with another Demaio style bass intro and a guest appearance of not only Romeo but Symphony X keyboardist Michael Pinella. The celtic feel almost reminds one of classic “Death or Glory” era Running Wild but evolves into more progressive pastures as the song develops.
A complete “metal opera” with guest singers, based on William Shakespeare's Macbeth the song never loses its focus nor riffs (something I complain about from time to time, for when Metal bands usually do something on this scale, it's focused on vocals or orchestration to the detriment or exclusion of good riffs, accolades again must be given that the song is still very riff driven and powerful without becoming syrupy or gimmicky or empty).
This song features unexpected twists and turns, as many of the songs on the album do, including a full on “Rhythm and Blues” part that fits the lyrical part it is going along with.
Overall, Silent Assassins does something extremely rare in this era of metal- it displays a unique and varied sound that is a unique take on classic ideas, especially in a world where it's tricky to maintain such an ideal, that is, in the world of "Power" or "Traditional" Metal music.
This is an extremely difficult balance to maintain, in this era of bands either trying to push either the brutality or technicality of metal to gimmicky extremes or others just resting on the laurels of the past to a cliched extent.
This band does neither, they instead make something that sounds both fresh and familiar while still honoring the past, and when LePond's (not to mention Michael Romeo's, who helps with the drum programming, production, and even lends a solo to the proceedings on the title track) main band's schedule allows, definitely has a bright future with more excellent albums like this to come!
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