UMUR
"Scream" is the 6th full-length studio album by Danish melodic heavy rock/metal act Pretty Maids. The album was released through Massacre Records in January 1995. The preceeding album "Stripped (1993)" featured only acoustic and slightly electric ballads and power ballads, but on "Scream" it´s safe to say that the band are back with a metal vengeance.
...well that´s only partially true, but let´s save the explanation for later. The album opens with three of the most heavy and hard edged songs Pretty Maids had released up until then in "Rise", "Scream" and "Psycho-Time-Bomb-Planet-Earth", and my hopes for the rest of the album are high from the get go. Unfortunately it´s not until track number 9 titled "Adrenaline Junkie" that we reach that high an energy level again and IMO that´s too bad, because Pretty Maids are best when they kick ass like they do on those tracks. In addition to the harder edged material on the album, "Scream" also features melodic rockers like "This Love", "Walk Away" and the almost glam metal influenced "Don't Turn Your Sex on Me". While that part of the band´s material is more synth heavy, melodic and generic to my ears, it´s the two ballads on the album that really disturb my listening experience. When done right ballads and power ballads can be a nice variation on an otherwise hard edged album, but when both "In a World of Your Own" and "Anytime Anywhere" sound like something off Smokie´s greatest hits, I´m out of here. Luckily that´s only two out of ten tracks and the rest of the material ranges from above standard melodic rockers to really great hard edged heavy rock/metal tracks.
The musicianship is on a high level as always, with Ronnie Atkins strong vocals as the focal point. Packed in a powerful sound production courtesy of Pretty Maids and Flemming Rasmussen (Metallica, Morbid Angel, Blind Guardian...etc.), "Scream" overall comes off as a very professional product.
Besides my complaint about the saccarine ballads, which is probably an aquired taste anyways, "Scream" is a very strong album by Pretty Maids and a 3.5 (70%) rating is fair.