Herman Frank
The Devil Rides Out
AFM Records
2016
Herman Frank is the Victory and sometimes Accept (and others) guitarist that hasn’t managed to stay in the “bigger” bands for whatever reasons… based on his output in Panzer, I’d say it could have been his average songwriting, but then again, I’m not totally enamored with the Tornillo era Accept songwriting in general, (which is mostly Hoffman, Baltes material) and Frank’s more traditional “metal” solo efforts have been probably a bit better, if not a little generic.
Changing Parharidis (Human Fortress, Victory etc.) with current Masterplan vocalist Rick Altzi, a few years back has given the band a bit more edge and also getting Jaded Heart’s M. Muller on bass and Andre Hilgers (ex-Rage and quite a few more) has secured the band a nice rhythm section that albeit doesn’t sound all that booming in the mix, but that’s probably not such a bad thing.
While the album gets a great start with a couple of great songs, like “Running Back” and “Shout”, it then sort of either drowns in mediocrity of either speeding melodic metal tracks, or muscular mid-tempos that however rarely manage to register themselves as unique, which is a shame, because there are some utterly brilliant riffs, ie “Run Boy Run” or “Stone Cold”, but the songs are not really as catchy as you’d have hoped. Altzi is hardly to blame, as his singing is pretty spot on, but probably the production is too compress to allow the vocals to “breathe” and impress, as much as they could… ie a more spartan approach would have made “Stone Cold” better and given the vocals more focus.
Fans of Accept’s more melodic side and Victory won’t be disappointed, but with all its near hits and few misses, this is decidedly second tier material, despite the best intentions of its creators.
Changing Parharidis (Human Fortress, Victory etc.) with current Masterplan vocalist Rick Altzi, a few years back has given the band a bit more edge and also getting Jaded Heart’s M. Muller on bass and Andre Hilgers (ex-Rage and quite a few more) has secured the band a nice rhythm section that albeit doesn’t sound all that booming in the mix, but that’s probably not such a bad thing.
While the album gets a great start with a couple of great songs, like “Running Back” and “Shout”, it then sort of either drowns in mediocrity of either speeding melodic metal tracks, or muscular mid-tempos that however rarely manage to register themselves as unique, which is a shame, because there are some utterly brilliant riffs, ie “Run Boy Run” or “Stone Cold”, but the songs are not really as catchy as you’d have hoped. Altzi is hardly to blame, as his singing is pretty spot on, but probably the production is too compress to allow the vocals to “breathe” and impress, as much as they could… ie a more spartan approach would have made “Stone Cold” better and given the vocals more focus.
Fans of Accept’s more melodic side and Victory won’t be disappointed, but with all its near hits and few misses, this is decidedly second tier material, despite the best intentions of its creators.