METAL SHOCK Dylan Raine - Rating: 10 out of 10 How do you define what you hear when everything is beyond reality and acceptance itself? I'd suppose Evil Masquerade has found a way of explaining such things with their music. As you delve into the realms of the music and the particulars in which you are hearing it, you not only listen, but you almost become a part of it itself. This is not far from the truth with any hypnotising music, and Evil Masquerade have surely pulled this one out of the bag with their beautifully creative masterpiece of shear musical madness. Entering the album you are shown what has made this band simply excellent, with brilliant executions of riffs and melodies, combined with the keyboards carrying along the rhythms and the vocals are something beyond all reckoning. 'Pentagram' really lines you up for what is beyond an exceptional album. Song to song you are taken on a journey of musical excellence, with the most extraordinary effect driven madness and pure heavy passages before obscurities take place like that of 'On a Bed of Thorns' which is just astonishing. Before long you are thrown into the musical genius that is 'Strangers Might Fool Ya and the renaissance characteristic overlays of the beautiful synths. Being a fan of well used synths is a quality many bands fail to master, but this has certainly achieved it. The album itself is worth not only a listen, but much more than that. This has to be experienced. _________________________________ BLACK WIND METAL Arno Callens' - Rating: 4.0 out of 5 Evil Masquerade has been a persistent presence in the power metal underground since the band's excellent debut Welcome To The Show. Keeping their taste for the theatrical, they have evolved from a neoclassic mad carnival to a devilish rock 'n' roll ride. Their fifth album, Pentagram, marks the next milestone in this development, presenting an ever darker twist on solo-Dio hard rock and heavy metal. It speaks for the dynamic duo of guitar wizard Henrik Flyman and vocal god Apollo Papathanasio that simplifying their sound brings out their strengths and both are in fine form here. With the new Firewind record Few Against Many hot off the press as well, these are good times for the Greek, even though his homeland is going through some hell. The man even gets to let out a high-pitched scream or two, something I cannot remember him doing that much in his extensive career. Pentagram tells you all you need to know with it's opening track, a rollicking trip through dampest dungeons and eeriest rituals flowing effortlessly into the rancorous and melancholy A Silhouette, an early album highlight. Keeping things delightfully macabre are Perfect Disgrace and The Spirits Of The Dead, until Moonlight Fantasy adds a catchier and warmer note to the coldness. Tempo-wise, most of the tracks plod steadily on and Unholy Water is perhaps the best example of this tendency. It's refrain strings you along with ease and washes into the whispered title. Indeed, the album possesses an uncanny sense of streaming effortlessly from one song to another. Pray For Mercy On Our Souls is another rapturous rampage, while Soul Taker snarls with scarily subdued intensity. With On A Bed Of Thorns, the band harkens back to Desire And Pain from predecessor Fade To Black, slow, ominous and almost resembling doom. Strangers Might Fool Ya' is an intriguing interlude before the last vicious verse When The Fire Dies sets in and the credits roll with instrumental outro The Golden Ratio. Evil Masquerade play in a league very much of their own and will probably keep prowling the subterranean cellars forever. All the more the loss of those dwelling aboveground, not willing to venture into the vaults of evil and dance among the demons. I'm having a blast there either way. _________________________________ ROCKNYTT (Sweden) 9,5 out of 10 review only available in Swedish _________________________________ METAL UNDERGROUND CROMCarl - Rating: 4 out of 5 If there ever was a way to take the late great Ronnie James Dio, Jorn Lande, and
