Astral Doors - Black Eyed Children

Astral Doors have been around for almost fifteen years now and they return this year with their eighth full album. It’s actually funny since Nils Patrick Johansson abandoned his place in Civil War, an offshoot band made up of the Sabaton members, who were dismissed a few years ago, by one of the worst vocalists in the history of metal. Johansson has often been favorably compared to Dio and while it’s true that he has a certain grit in his delivery, certain high notes he does sound dirty and “nasal” almost as if Dio was trying to do an UDO does Donald Duck impersonation.
 
Astral Door’s material is a bit better than the two bit Civil War + Sabaton material that if not for its impressive instrumentation would give Manowar a run for most “basic” songwriting… at least the “kings of metal” had a really great vocalist and not a pretender…
 
Really the better songs are those in which Johansson doesn’t try to go for his higher notes, ie “Walls”, “Tomorrow’s Dead” and “Good Vs Bad”. There he sounds like a very poor man’s Jorn… elsewhere like a joke with even the titles hardly being serious and let’s not even go to lyrics… “God is the Devil” and “Jesus Christ Moviestar”….
 
Really, scrapping the bottom of the barrel for inspiration and putting out albums like this, is a waste of plastic and a good guitarist (Joachim Nordlund). Way below mediocre…