Power metal supergroup Dampf are back with their second album. Like its first, it’s produced by Jona Tee of H.E.A.T and is the kind of parping power metal that European bands do so well.
The title track is fists up and Eurovision-ready as Bhéara (aka Olivia Thörn) roars her best melodic stuff as Arkouda does a bit of growling.
And that’s the point. For all that “Masquerade” does power metal, it does it with something different at its heart.
Whether it’s the keys there or the heavier, eerier “Ghost,” this is not generic stuff.
The drums of “Might As Well Have Died” thunder—well, they might as they are played by Haderajja, as he’s known here. He’s better known as David Wallin of Hammerfall.
More than anything, these are just great songs. “War With Everything” has a folk tinge, “Hellfire” does some superb crushing, and the riffs of “Away” are pleasingly modern—Dragonforce wishes they’d gotten “Mists Of Avalon (Don’t Wake Me Up).”
“Dark Side Of My Moon” would be great based on its title alone, even if it didn’t get epic in the space of four minutes.
Dampf: it doesn’t matter who’s in the band, who produces the thing, or anything else.
What matters is that A-Tron and Beak have the skill to pull off their vision for “No Angels Alive.”
Rating: 8.5/10
DAMPF – NO ANGELS ALIVE (2024)
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