Artist: Heavenly
Title: Carpe Diem
Type: Album
Label: AFM Records

Heavenly are one of the most underrated bands on the power metal circuits, but a split in its ranks a few years ago not only gave Dragonforce a new bassist, but led to this band putting out one of the weakest albums of its discography, ‘Virus’. Whereas ‘Dust To Dust’ was one of the few power albums in history which could be called ‘perfect’, with its cheesy yet superlative take on the genre, what followed in ‘Virus’ was an attempt at heavy metal which fell flat. What we have here is a happy medium which combines some unforgettably memorable heavy metal hooks with the melodic beauty of power metal. The title track, ‘Carpe Diem’, for example takes a crunching riff, a mind-bending solo, and sets it against the keyboards and scarily high-pitched vocals of Benjamin Sotto of the verses to create a wonderful hybrid.

Gone are the attempts to create the anthemic choruses of the last album, and we are back to the actual sing-along songs, which warrant more and more listens. Sotto’s voice will probably be hated by some, but those with even the smallest fondness for power metal will appreciate its uniqueness and variation. We even have a power metal version of Beethoven’s ‘Ode To Joy’, which adds in all the dynamic guitars and keyboards of Heavenly, whilst retaining the bombastic double kick drums of Pierre-Emmanuel "Piwee" Desfray. This song, as do the others, brings back all the stop-starts, big vocal ensembles, and outrageous show-off musicianship that this band does better than any other, and it truly is Heavenly to listen to.

The one band that always had the potential to play in the big leagues has well and truly delivered this time, and shows that there is hope in what’s seen universally as a stagnating genre. And if none of this sells it for you, there are a couple of scantily dressed lesbians on the album artwork. Need any more reasons to buy? Good.

http://www.heavenly.fr
http://www.myspace.com/heavenlyofficial

James Young

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