Stephen
After four years of silence, Pretty Maids returns with a mighty follow-up to their eleventh album, "Wake Up To The Real World" that's received mixed appraisals. This Danish heavy metal giant offers the same musical style, less experimental and more straight forward, in the veins of their classic style, but this time, they provided an updated sound to keep the record from being outdated. Their formation is still the same as last album except for the keyboard spot, which was filled by Morten Sandager, replacing Alan Owen.
From start to finish, you will be served with a real treat of pure heavy metal, some are fast and heavy, some are in mid-tempo and a bit commercial, but no acoustical or slowtempo piano ballads here, so be prepared for a fireburning tracks to the end. The title track opener did its part pretty good to elevate the listener's mood with a tremendous uptempo heavy metal.
Ron Atkins is still sounded strong as ever while the rhythm section is tightly played. "I.N.V.U" and "Little Drops of Heaven" are two blissful melodic gems with the latter stands out as the best song of the album. "Cielo Drive" is definitely the heaviest song here, and also a well-composed one. "Old Enough To Know" and "Breathless" are commercial, easy listening, radio friendly, and lovable. Couple of okay tracks, no filler traced, and "It Comes At Night" can make another interesting track to watch, a firm gripping track with the most modern sounding song here, a bit patchy for some, but an acceptable goody for me.
"Pandemonium" was also equipped with a brilliant production and with a set of high-quality songs, this album is a must-buy Pretty Maids hardcore and a great recommendation for casual traditional heavy metal genre. After almost 30 years, the band still kicks hard, and this is only a proof that you can expect something big in the future. Thumbs up!