• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

This is a tough one. While American speed metallers Cellador offer practically every thing I enjoy in music; falsetto vocals, catchy melodies, harmony guitars and fast, rattling kick drums, there is one distinct factor preventing me from enjoying their debut release, and that factor is so disheartening it makes me feel physically sick. They sound like DragonForce.

Now, I'm not one to shamelessly slam an artist, but having been a power metaller for years – and experiencing the goading it receives first hand – watching DragonForce rise from rags to riches in the shadow of the bands they imitate makes me want to pull my brains out through my eyes. The fact they can get away with stealing Helloween songs by disguising them under blast beats boils my piss, and while more and more 10 year olds are appearing wearing their T- shirts, this shift in popularity poses two questions: either power metal is finally being taken seriously, or it has become a mockery of everything it stood for. Either way, Cellador are sadly becoming part of this 'new wave' movement, and I don't like it one fucking bit.

That's not to say "Enter Deception" is without its charms; in fact, so much of this album is so bloody good it makes Angelina Jolie look like Jade Goody. Edguy-like opener "Leaving All Behind" and the superb "Never Again" are two of the best tracks the genre has spawned in recent years, but when the squealing Nintendo-themed octaves of "A Sign Far Beyond" blast out of the stereo, I can't believe how rapidly the album has dipped in quality. Granted, Michael Gremio's vocals are miles ahead of ZP Fart - sounding more like Metalium's Henning Basse - but when using them to emulate nursery rhyme guitar melodies, it never amounts to anything but an attempt to show everyone how many notes they can cram into a second.

Fans of Edguy, Gamma Ray, Helloween and *cough*… DragonForce will be enticed by Cellador's immense talent and Eric Rutan's crystal clear production, but if masking good song writing under layers of celerity is what music making has come to, I can see nothing but a dark journey ahead.