Srdjan Brankovic is a bit of a music lifer. Before forming The Big Deal, he was in Alogia (who opened for Whitesnake) and, among other things, played on Ronnie Romero’s debut.
Now he’s on his second album with his new venture, and opener “Survivor” might be the most European melodic metal you’ll hear all year, and it’s only the middle of January.
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“Like A Fire” has a tougher edge. Think Battle Beast if you like. It’s all energy and bombast.
The solos are incredible, and when they’re mixed with keyboards that would make Jordan Rudess blush it’s quite something.
The two-vocalist approach makes The Big Deal just that, and both Ana Nikolic and Nevena Brankovic are blessed with stunning ability. Listen to “Fairy Of White” and it’ll be the only conclusion you reach.
Essentially, this is power metal. And it’s power metal done by Frontiers Records. The Italian label has a very specific sound. They always sound incredible (their in-house producer Allesandro Del Vecchio liked The Big Deal so much he was in them until 2023) and they layer it on thick. Good job, then, that nothing is stripped down. “Better Than Hell” soars and gets its fists up in the air.
“Broken Wings” comes in like rolling thunder. Part show tune, part Eurovision entry, this is the work of a band who have no truck with the idea of ‘less is more’.
Everything is stacked high and reaches for the sky, the keyboards – also played by Nevena – attack, as they do on ‘Don’t Talk About Love” and the harmonies are layered as you like on the tough-sounding “Burning Up”.
They’ve worked with the likes of Anders Wikstrom (TREAT) and Jona Tee (H.E.A.T.), this time around and everything seems to have gone up a notch in truth, “Coming Along” makes that clear in flashing Neon, but what they do so adeptly is eschew the usual clichés of the genre by trotting off down a more metal route from time to time. To that end, you could cheerfully stick “They Defied” on the main stage at Bloodstock with no issues at all.
To be fair, they’ve been on the Kiss Cruise and shared main stages with Europe and Deep Purple already, and “More Than A Man” is another example that says why they belong there.
It’s not that you haven’t heard this type of thing before, but you could argue, perhaps that the whole The Big Deal package isn’t quite like other bands that you’d have as obvious contemporaries. Like, if H.E.A.T. listened to a lot of prog metal, then it might sound like “Break Down The Walls” but TBD got there first.
As if to confound expectations one last time, I’d assumed “Dare To Dream” would be a ballad. Simply because they hadn’t had one here, it’s not, but it’s an uplifting thing nonetheless.
And it sums them up too: ‘You gotta dare to dream” and surely they must’ve? No one else was making music quite like this so they made “Electrified” That’s why they are going to be a very Big Deal.
Rating 8.5/10
