Band:	Zandelle
Album:	Vengeance Rising
Style:	Heavy metal, US power metal
Release date:	2006
A review by:	Jeff

01. Blood Red Shores
02. Dragon's Hoard
03. Invitation
04. Queen Anne's Revenge
05. The Final Hour
06. THe Beowulf Trilogy
    1 - Awakening
    2 - Vengeance Rising
    3 - Ancient Tale Of Valor
07. Cry For Vengeance
08. Prophecy
09. Necromancer

Zandelle started its career in 1996, but the American Power/Heavy Metal combo only released three albums until today. Actually, they didn't have a lot of chances with their line-up and had to wait a lot of time between each releases for a lot of reasons. Finally, the band found a deal with the great Limb Music and releases at the end of the year their third album (the second with this label) "Vengeance Rising". If you like classic Heavy with some touches of Epic music, it should be something for you.

Zandelle plays a mix of old school blasting US Heavy Metal and European Power Metal a la Blind Guardian or Hammerfall. If there is nothing really new in their compositions, I can't deny that the band has a nice way to play their songs and well, it never lacks of energy and catchiness. Of course it's a bit generic and not really original but I don't know why there is something in the music of Zandelle and I'm quite sure that a lot of Heavy Metal lovers will like this album. As an example, "Blood Red Shores" or "Prophecy" are two good songs of old school Heavy Metal with a frenetic rhythms a la Iced Earth and melodies in the pure Maiden spirit. On the other hand a song like "Ancient Tale Of Valor" is definitely more into European Power Metal with this kind of Epic melodies/choruses (a.k.a. "We're all Metal brothers who sing together") that a lot of European metalheads already know and love (or hate)? But all in all, it's varied and not weak, the songs are all powerful and aggressive, that's good Heavy that will please to the ones who like Power Metal too.

With the production, I can tell you that the sound is really correct, the album is long (one hour of music) but (and that's a big BUT) we're probably in front of one of the worst cover that I ever seen. For sure at least, this is the worst and cheesier cover of the year. I really hope that the band will find the phone number of Monowasp or Noren for their next album, because this one is clearly something that will repulse a lot of people. Too bad, it doesn't really represent the music of the band, so remember my words, just don't care about this ugly and wrong cover.

"Vengeance Rising" is a good album. Nothing special too but if you need right now some Heavy Metal, let's give a chance to this album. It's not bad at all really and plus it's a good link between US and European Heavy so, give it a chance, maybe that some of you will have a good surprise.