Review Summary: "80's US melodic heavy/power metal at its finest". If you want this phrase to summarize a music album, well... you've just hit bull's eye!
Fifth Angel, have released three studio albums so far (Fifth Angel in 1986, Time Will Tell in 1989 and The Third Secret in 2018). Throughout the years, line-up changes and the loss of their label support pushed the band off the cliff. Although they didn't perform in any live concerts until they first disbanded in 1989 (the only two shows the band ever played was a label showcase for Epic Records and a rehearsal/photo shoot at the Paramount Theater in Seattle), their first two albums gave them recognition, mainly in the USA, and put them in the "hidden gem band" category.
This album begins by giving us the full view of the potential that the band had. The song "In The Fallout" is a magnificent display of clean and powerful vocals, melodic and technical guitar solos, tight musicianship, and good composing/instrumenting abilities. This song is a very powerful introduction and the rest of the album continues in high quality standards as well. By combining beautiful melodies with heaviness, they manage to keep the listener hooked up with Ted Pilot's diverse vocal performances, ranging from powerful high screams to hauntingly low "chants" (such as in the song "Wings Of Destiny"), the remarkable guitar playing of James Byrd, and the really good rhythmic performances on the rhythm guitar, bass and drums.
The production is pretty good for a debut album of this era, nothing more or less here. Their musical style has a lot of Iron Maiden and early Queensrÿche influences and I think that this is reflected on the lyrics which deal mostly with social and religious issues, often written in an allegorical way. They're not anything too sophisticated, but they tend to differ from the glam/hair metal lyrical limitations of the time.
After the release of the album, both the band and the album received critical acclaim and an underground fan base was quickly formed. A 1986-1987 "Riding On The Wings" tour was planned to support the debut album, which included an opening slot for Iron Maiden, and a string of headline East Coast dates. Unfortunately, the tour never happened due to a variety of band-related and external factors.
All in all, I absolutely recommend this album to any heavy/power metal fan and to anyone who is into melodic metal in general.
