Review Summary: A solid power metal effort and a fantastic debut album.
Boomerang is a band I first heard about two weeks ago while actually looking for Avantasia’s new album
The Scarecrow. The cover looked pretty awesome, so I blindly got this record ala Balls To The Wall style of doing things. After hearing this about three times now, I can say that this is a very well done power metal effort.
First off, Boomerang has obviously had influences from 80’s Thrash Metal bands like Metallica, and other groups like Iron Maiden. Now this is not a bad thing at all, in fact it adds more depth to the music than a lot of what power metal bands are doing in this age. The speedy chug-chug-chug of the guitars is present. Fantasy lyrics are present, cheesy vocals are present too. So right off the bat, if you aren’t a fan of power metal, this isn’t for you.
Let’s start off with the drums. Andreas Reichard does an exceedingly great job during the course of this album. He especially sticks out in
Sleeping Titans and
Blood Angel . With
Blood Angel he performs an Irish tribal like beat to the already Celtic esque song. About three minutes in, he starts going crazy beating the snare like he is hacking at a tree with an ax.
Phoenix Rising has him at his best though as Andreas does a little seven second solo at the beginning and flails away some more during the duration of the song. Overall, he gives one of the best performances I have ever heard in a power metal record.
Like 99.9% of power metal bands, the bass is basically inaudible throughout, so I can move on to the next part of my review.
Boomerang has two guitarists in Thomas Fahrnbach and Stefan Zobel. Their influences in Maiden and Metallica are extremely obvious.
One Night to Remember , for instance, starts off like an older Metallica song. Twelve seconds in though, it explodes into the famous Maiden chug-chug-chug. Their work in
Sleeping Titans is so Maiden like, that it seems like the guitarists from Iron Maiden actually did the work. Basically it’s especially done well. There is one complaint that is present. It seems like they tried too hard to be like those old 80s thrash bands and Iron Maiden while they were recording this record. It isn’t like it is bad, but we have all heard these guitar riffs and solos before, just 25 years ago.
Blood Angel has some redeeming factor, as during a part of the first verse at 1:20 has some of the fastest guitar work during a non-solo section that I have ever heard before. Simply put, these guys do a great job at what they do, but more diversity would’ve been nice.
The true highlight of this whole disk isn’t the superb drumming or the speedy guitars, NO; it’s the excellent vocals of Axel Johann. If Bruce Dickenson and James Hetfield had a child, this is what he would sound like. Not is this more apparent than in the song
Insecure . Axel gives us a gruff, yet melodic verse, but blasts into a fantastic chorus. In
Blood Angel , he sings the whole chorus in German, with Thomas. They sound incredible, like they were a couple of friends drunk in a bar. Right before the solo, we get a change and Axel gives us a Halford type scream. I almost crapped myself because I had no clue that was coming.
There is one song that is head and heels above the rest;
Skin Walker . Every member of the band performs exceedingly well during this one and it’s quite a pleasure to one’s ears. This is the song where Axel shows his Dickenson/Hetfield vocal the best. He sounds like old Hetfield during the verses, but changes it to that Dickenson vocal during the chorus. The chorus is probably the worst part of the song though. It just seems really forced, and Boomerang tries to be too epic during it. Around the three minute mark, we run into the most interesting part of this whole album. We get a scream, not like a power metal Halford scream, but like a death metal type growl kind of scream. It would appear like it is totally out of place, but it is not. The song ends with a chorus, but this chorus is twenty times better than the previous ones. The backing vocals of Thomas add nicely to Axel’s.
Boomerang gives us a very nice debut. While some will say that they rip off Metallica and Iron Maiden a bit too much, I say they are a unique type of power metal band. Yes, they are influenced heavily by these two bands, but they blend both styles together to make an enjoyable listen. I definitely recommend this to any power metal fan, because this is the second best album I have heard all of 2008. It’s heavy, beautiful, crushing, cheesy, and downright epic.
