• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

It took a few listens before I started liking this – in fact on the first (not-so-attentive) listen I thought it was a joke. But 3-4 listens later things started shaping up, and this turned out to be an OK album overall. This is very melodic Heavy Metal, but not in the "watered down" style often associated with "melodic". The music here is pretty hard and sometimes heavy, but the melody is omnipresent, sometimes maybe even too much, with the cheese factor going through the roof.

The vocals were a bit of a turn off at first, and even now some parts are still make my teeth hurt. The vocalist is alright overall, but the vocal melodies don't always feel right, and are sometimes very shaky which kind of weaken some otherwise strong songs. It's one of those "trying to do too much" type of things. But still, even when things are a bit too messy, the vocals are kind of addictive and the melodies very catchy – I can't get most of that stuff out of my head.

Hard-hitting melodic Heavy Metal carrying a number of influences, from the Maiden-style gallops to the Grave Digger epic styles, upbeat from beginning to end and catchy as fuck. It may be far from perfect, but Metal Service's flaws do have their own little charm.