Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Melodic hardrock forever, July 27, 1999
By A Customer
Balance of power is the ultimate melodic hardrock group and so i Emerldal rain. Don't let this musikstyle die...
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Fine CD, but look for the other 2 first!, May 16, 2000
Actually, I rate this CD 3½ stars. This is very enjoyable and quite polished. Balance of Power has a nice Queensryche/Dream Theater vibe to them, without the vocal style of either. Keyboards play a nice role, but these guys first and foremost rock. Of the 3 CD's they've released (this is their 1st, Book of Secrets 2nd, Ten More Tales of Grand Illusion 3rd,) this is more commercial than the 2 newer CD's. Vocalist Tony Ricthie doesn't sing in the higher registers, but still sings smoothly (imagine Eddie Money minus the Brooklyn accent, and with a slight British accent, singing more smoothly, but with less range). Overnight Sensation has 80's Metal single written all over it (without the glam!) Balance of Power says of themselves that even though they write progressive rock, they'll never forget the melody. On this 1st CD, they stick to the commercial metal formula. However, on their 2nd and 3rd CD's, they decided to go in a more progressive rock vein, to which they decided that Tony Ritchie's vocals weren't right for the style of music they were creating (including Tony himself!) Enter Lance King, who's the current singer. His vocals fit perfectly this style of music, a higher range, but very natural. While I think he's a very good singer, he's somewhat faceless in his style. In other words, he doesn't really establish his own identity, yet he doesn't try to copy anyone in particular. Book of Secrets, and Ten More Tales... are being released here in the U.S., and they show the talents of the band much better than this CD does. I have a CD-R copy of the Japanese version of this CD (which I purchased from Lance King himself), which contains a somber piano dominated song as a bonus track at the end, which you can do without, even though it's still not too bad. Overall this is a nice CD to have, without any bad songs on it, but with a sameness which makes some songs indistinguishable from each other. The other CD's I'd rate as 4½ stars each, with a slight nod to Ten More Tales being almost a 5! The only reason I wouldn't just flat out rate both of them 5 stars, is that you feel like they have a better CD in them. These have more of a Queensryche/Dream Theater/Narnia sound to them, then When The World Falls Down, and is a lot more progressive! All 3 CD's have very good harmonies (which are even better with Lance's vocals), and very clean guitar sounds. The guitars sound a bit heavier on Ten More Tales, but Book of Secrets has more of an epic feel to it. Personally, I'd suggest that you wait to get either of the 2 newer CD's first, if you want to complete the collection, purchase this CD. I'd also suggest contacting Lance King at lance@nightmare-records.com for info about purchasing the other 2 CD's, or where to go to listen to tracks.
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by Balance of Power 
