Band:	Highlord
Album:	Medusa's Coil
Style:	Power metal
Release date:	May 10, 2004
A review by:	Malcolm

01. Medusa's Coil
02. Far From The Light Of God
03. Scarlet Tears
04. Dancing With Destiny
05. Where My Hero Lies
06. Moonseas
07. Your Story Too
08. The Hand Of God
09. Tough Boy [Japanese bonus]
10. Tough Boy [Karaoke version] [Japanese bonus]

Italy's Highlord is on their way to release a successor to the quite successful "Breath of Eternity" that was released back in 2002.
Personally I haven't listen to "Breath of Eternity" enough to say if it's a good record or not, but for this new one, I have given some hours in my stereo, and my impression so far is quite divide.

Highlord was formed back in 1996 and they recorded a demo-tape that later Underground Symphony liked and offered them a contract. But unfortunately Highlord got some problems with the line-up and had to cancel it all.
After some time, with a new line-up, they signed with the new label, Northwind Rec. and recorded their debut album "Heir of Power" in 1998, with their, then, new singer Vascé.
Second album got the name "When the Aurora Falls?" and was recorded back in 2000 (Released in 2001). They toured a lot after that album until 2002, and then Vascé left.
They replaced him with Andrea Marchisio (that's still a part of Highlord).
May 2002 the recordings of their third record took place; "Breath of Eternity" was released in November (Europe). And Italian and some international were lyrical over the new album.
And now it's time for the bands fourth album, "Medusa's Coil", that's released with Monday in May.

The first thought I had when receiving this album was the cover, god damned, what a cover. This have the be the nicest cover this year, + for you there Highlord for picking this one.
Another quite unnecessary thing to know is that the logo is made by no other then our dear old friend Chris Saiyan; you don't know who that is? Really? Well, then let me tell you.
Chris is no other than founder off metalreviews.com and also a really good painter off all it kinds.

But now let's focus on the music, shall we? The album in general is good, maybe not very original or so, but it's good. Every musician is very skilled, but unfortunately the singer has some problems to find a good way of singing. He isn't so bad really, but he tries to sing in ways that he can't handle, and that's a shame.
But he sometimes sings in ways that he really can sing too, such in the songs "Scarlet Tears" & "The Hand of God" (Last one future some really good female vocals and even some growls from the drummer). But sometimes he tries to get a darker voice and he can't manager that, and when he tries to "play" high-pitcher it's even worst. But there, in between he's good.

Otherwise the songs are very well written, both musically and lyric, even if I in some songs have trouble to understand meaning, but it's no big deal.
It's very keyboard driven as I think you can understand, but I guess that's normal since it's the keyboarder that's the main songwriter.

Overall it's a good album, with some very good a catchy songs, specially the mid-tempo "Scarlet Tears".
But I most also mention the song "Your Story Too" that's a quite funny and good song. The strange way of singing the words really caught my attention; you should check this track up.
Unfortunately the singer has some problems so fit the music, but I guess we have exercise that away in the future.

Favourite Songs: "Medusa's Coil", "Scarlet Tears" & "The Hand of God".