Aside from closing track The Spirit of the Ancient Kings, which offers the listener a bewildering mix of latter day Blind Guardian and (eighties dream popsters) Dream Academy‘s Life In A Northern Town, German outfit Sonic Dynamite offer a pretty uncluttered, straight-up take on the modern metal template.
Essentially unremarkable at first listen – there aren’t many standout earworms screaming at you at first contact – repeated exposure to Another World reveals a very listenable album built on the traditional metal values espoused by old gods Priest, Maiden and Helloween.
Tobias Sascha Schmitt keeps things simple on the vocal front, never overdoing things but single with control and poise, whilst guitarist Lukas Frania riffs with purpose and solos with pleasing fluidity. First track on the album, Bread & Circuses, sees the pair operating at full throttle, backed by some clever bass work from Daniel Rimert and dynamic percussive flourishes from Ingo Schmitz. If you love the late eighties output of any of the bans I’ve mentioned by way of reference it’s hard to see how you wouldn’t be welcoming Sonic Dynamaite with open arms when hearing this track.
Perhaps the only quibble you may have is that the the band don’t really vary the playbook throughout the rest of the album, avoiding the temptation to make excursions into other neighbouring metal territories, but why would you when you can make melodic metal like the title track work so well for you?
As the old Gods reach their inevitable ends, it’s the job of Magazines like Sentinel Daily to find new ones to carry on the flame. And Sonic Dynamite would appear to be in with more than a fighting chance of being one of those on the evidence of this excellent album. Definitely a name to keep an eye on in the future!
Another World is out now.
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