AXEL RUDI PELL — Into the Storm (review)

AXEL RUDI PELL — Into the Storm album cover Album · 2014 · Heavy Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
2.5/5 ·
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Into the Storm (2014) is the sixteenth album by German guitarist Axel Rudi Pell. Though a solo project Axel Rudi Pell has always operated as a band entity, the line-up of which has largely been stable now since 1998, though the drummer changed to Bobby Rondinelli in 2013, who makes his debut with Axel Rudi Pell on Into the Storm.

Despite going since 1989 and having sixteen albums Into the Storm is actually the first time I have tried Axel Rudi Pell's music. I have to be honest, at least through this album it doesn't make the best of impressions. Into the Storm contains ten tracks of the style that I usually consider to be completely inoffensive traditional heavy metal crossed with hard rock; that is to say that while there's nothing inherently bad about the music it doesn't get my head banging or my blood pumping in any way either.

Vocalist Johnny Gioeli makes good impressions though and allowed the album to stand out a bit more than I think it would otherwise. Axel Rudi Pell's been around a while of course and something like this released back at the start of his career would no doubt have set a different impression, but as a first album to hear from him and his band in 2014 Into the Storm just ends up feeling a bit flat. The ten minute title is the most adventurous number here by the album's own standard, but much like the overall sound the middle-eastern melody style used here is something that just seems to have been done to death by rock and metal artists so what may be a bit different in album terms doesn't do much to standout once the bigger picture is looked at. A few of songs tend to overstay their welcome too and coming in at nearly a full hour of playing time there simply isn't much here to alleviate the blandness of the whole thing.

It would be a fair argument to say that such an assessment is a problem with me not hearing earlier Axel Rudi Pell albums (and so not knowing what to expect) rather than a problem with the music itself but I can only appraise Into the Storm based on what experience I have and I've heard recent traditional metal albums in both old school and modern styles that managed to sound a lot fresher than anything Axel Rudi Pell offers up on Into the Storm. Still, anything lower than a 2.5 star rating would probably be unfair.
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