The Primal Fear vocalist serves up some good meat and potatoes metal. Yes, I just said that.Ralf Scheepers has just released his first solo CD, via Frontiers Records, and it rocks. We all know him as the voice behind power metal giants Primal Fear, and as one of the most powerful vocalists in metal today; and this new solo CD just re-inforces what a great vocalist this guy is. When I first heard that this CD was coming out, I was pretty geeked. Having been less that satisfied with the past couple of Primal records, I was hoping the Ralf would mix things up and kick our ass. For the project Ralf has enlisted many bing names from the genre to give him a hand. The list of guests reads like an issue of Metal Hammer. Featured guests are former bandmate Kai Hansen (Gamma Ray), Tim "Ripper" Owens (Charred Walls of the Damned, Malmsteen), Victor Smolski (Rage) and Metal Mike (Halford).
Scheepers starts off like a feared, with the first of track sounding like his day job - not shocking considering his back up band is primarily made up of Primal Fear bandmates. Don't get me wrong, it's okay, but not what I was hoping for. The next track, Remission of Sin, is a mid-tempo rocker that has an Accept/Sinner feel to it. This is what I was hoping for. Cool track. What really shined for me were the mid-tempo, classic metal tunes like The Fall and Dynasty; killer tracks that encompass an old school feel. Meat and Potatoes metal, if you will.
There's a nice variety of rockers and dark type ballads on this release. I really dug the latter in the form of Doomsday, a great heavy ballad. All in all, a solid effort which comes off stronger than what the PF guys have been doing over the last couple of releases. There're a couple of dingers on this one, but the good totally outweigh the mediocre.
Bottom Line: Scheepers spreading his wings and going solo (sort of). Straight ahead hard rock/heavy metal, but well-written songs that are melodic and heavy.
Standout Tracks: The Fall, Doomsday, Back on Track and Dynasty
- Ragman is going for the Scheepers look; just add about 40 lbs of beer gut...