Charred Walls of the Damned - Cold Winds on Timeless Days

I was pretty excited when I heard that Charred Wall of the Damned was releasing their sophomore effort Cold Winds on Timeless Days on Metal Blade Records.  I was a big fan of their self titled debut, so when this one was released I ran right to the CD player to put it in.  The record starts off a little slow with the track Timesless Days which almost has an Aerosmithish intro ala Dream On, before kicking in.  This record picks up where the last one left off, but with a little less gusto.  It took me until the 3rd track Zerospan before I started really digging my teeth into this one.  This CD is a little more of the same, but on a high note, it does dive into more of a power metal vibe than the first one, which pleased me.

The songs are well written for the most part, but in some instances, certain tunes began to drone on, which started to loose me.  I found that this occurred primarily at the beginning of the disk, with the exception of Zerospan.  The latter part of the disk definitely contains the stronger material.  The songs are classic power metal with some thrash thrown in for good measure.  There is a nice variety on the record, which kept the CD interesting, but it was the songs that lacked substance, that took away from the overall product.  It was refreshing to see that Richard Christie (Ex-Death, Iced Earth) re-assembled the line up form the first record, to record this second opus.  All in all, not a bad record, but not a great one either.

Bottom Line: Charred Walls suffering from a bit of the sophomore jinks.  There are some exciting things happening on this record, but just not enough of them.  Had this one trimmed some of the fat, it could have been a contender for CD of the year.

Standout Tracks: Zerospan, The Beast Outside My Window, Bloodworm and Admire the Heroes

-Ragman wonders how Richard faired on Halloween.