• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

Back around 2004, I bought a copy of Dream Evil's The Book of Heavy Metal as part of my expanding re-entry into the world of heavy metal that had begun a few years earlier. I listened to it a few times and remember that even back then, before the Internet opened the floodgates and inundated us with more music than anyone could listen to in several lifetimes, the album left almost no lasting impression on me, other than that it was forgettable. Twenty years later, the band's seventh album, Metal Gods, has landed in my review queue and I thought it was time to give them another listen. As expected, Metal Gods sounds good. The production is clean but doesn't rob the guitars of their crunch, the vocals are clear and powerful, and the lead work, despite original lead guitarist Gus G. having long moved on to other projects, is tasteful and not overdone. After that, not much has changed and Metal Gods is just as generic and forgettable as The Book of Heavy Metal. Clichés abound with a song about other metal bands (a move so many bands have done before) kicking things off followed by titles like "Lightning Strikes," "Born in Hell," and "Night Stalker" that have been around the block more times than a New York City taxicab. This is an album that is hard to hate as the band members are pros and it sounds good, but picking it out of a lineup containing other melodic/power metal acts like Masterplan, Silent Force, Firewind, Nocturnal Rites, etc. would be a significant challenge. If you love this band, by all means grab a copy, but if not, you aren't missing much by skipping it.