Demons & Wizards

Touched By The Crimson King

SPV

7/10: Melodic / Power / Thrash / Prog

10 tracks; 49.24

"Touched by the Crimson King" is the second release from Demons and Wizards, featuring Jon Schaffer of Iced Earth and Hansi Kursch of Blind Guardian. It sounds like that's who it features, too, which is just what I was hoping for.

You can expect to hear a lot of melodic, infectious, thrashy power metal here, playing against lighter acoustic material. As a whole, it has a nice flow as these two edges give and take with fluidity. The melodies really pricked up my ears (I'm more of a grind fiend). Musicians have to be ballsy to attack high melody. High melody is challenging because: a) it's tough to sound original; and, b) it's tough to avoid sounding over-dramatic. I'd say these songs do a fairly good job of socking these challenges most of the time. Not that sounding over-dramatic is necessarily a bad thing. I secretly dig great big, over-the-top, cheesy metal. (Don't tell anyone). As long as it's done well. Indeed, where would our culture be without overdrama?

Further, the musicianship is expertly restrained throughout. You know there's a ton of talent there because it is showcased. But it's showcased carefully, as opposed to pervasive lead guitar wankery, for instance, that so often is the cock of the walk in this genre. As far as leads go here, you're good and primed for them when they ignite and they never fail to delight. They're precise, interesting and well planned. The rhythm section gets the job done. I wouldn't have minded if the drummer showed off a little more. A fretless bass is used on some of the tracks and it's pretty intense. Some cellos and violins (must be synths) do well to round everything out, along with exceptional backing vocals. The technical high point has gotta be Kursch's vocals though. You're probably familiar with his work. But, what lungs! What range! What voice quality! He's an outstanding singer.

As far as production values go, the rhythm section often gets a little washed out in the mix. But maybe that's fitting; they're not the "stars".

I suspect that most people would groove on the faster, heavier face of this disk. But they might get impatient with its slower, lighter side that, I would have to agree flirts with suckiness at times. All in all, though, it's slick and professional and expansively listenable.

Regan Perlett

6/10: Not really all that bad, but it has an air of staleness that is hard to ignore.

14 Tracks; 66:55

When I heard of this project five years ago, I could barely contain my childish glee and anticipation while waiting for the D&W debut. I mean, Hansi and Jon? Together?! And it still remains one of my most revered CDs. Fast forward to present time, and Blind Earth (or Iced Guardian) are back. Only this time, there seems to be something amiss.

Granted, all the pieces are there. Hansi with his legendary voice, and Jon with his unmistakable rhythm chops. But unfortunately, I found myself not being captivated like I figured I would. Possibly the bar was already set to the point where one-upping themselves isn't all that fair to expect? After all, this is just a side-project, so maybe not every shred of original ideas were used, and best kept for the twosome's main bands? Questions that only Jon could tell us this (or not).

It just doesn't have the intangible "it" that made the debut so wonderful. Coupled by some questionable reasoning behind some of the tracklisting (two songs that are identical to these ears, yet the second is labelled a "slow version"), Touched by the Crimson King is an album that has quite a few faults, but it's still a worthwhile purchase just to hear the two together again despite of them.

Chris Burnham