Lancer
Lancer
Doolittle Group AB
2013
OK, I won’t lie to you. From the moment I saw the band photo I thought I was looking back in the past or something like that. I could tell that this guy was Bruce Dickinson from the 80s. Ohh, yes… hey, wait a moment… he’s not! What the heck! Back to the future again… it’s 2013 and Lancer are a newcomer from Sweden. Their love for 80s heavy/power metal is more than obvious only judging by the band’s look but when you actually listen to the music, you know that you were so right eventually.
Yeap, that’s the actually unappealing thing with Lancer’s debut album. It’s too similar to the 80s European metal music and especially to bands like Helloween and Iron Maiden. Everything is so alike that they could have easily been a tribute band to the abovementioned groups. This album contains “original” music that we have heard before from Helloween and Iron Maiden a gazillion times better, with a better production and performances.
To be fair, the band ain’t bad or anything. It’s just that they lack musical personality and ideas. Hmm, then what’s the point here? OK you got me! I can’t tell you so! Just take a look at some song titles. “Mr. Starlight” (with the ala Grosskopf bass solo at the end of the song), “Dejà Vu”, “Seventh Angel”, “The Exiled”, “Between the Devil and the Deep” and so on. It can’t get more cliché, overdone & unoriginal than this… or can it be?! The production is also a bit 80s but the mixing wasn’t so good, as I would prefer the drums to be a tad lower.
Please guys give me a good reason why I should listen to a second rate Helloween/Maiden clone and not the originals? Com’ on! Lancer must get things together and decide what they wanna do in their next steps. Obviously, they can’t go on with this “copy/paste thing” forever. They need to step up and do it their way. It’s good to be influenced by some bands but it ain’t that good tryin’ to actually be those bands…
Yeap, that’s the actually unappealing thing with Lancer’s debut album. It’s too similar to the 80s European metal music and especially to bands like Helloween and Iron Maiden. Everything is so alike that they could have easily been a tribute band to the abovementioned groups. This album contains “original” music that we have heard before from Helloween and Iron Maiden a gazillion times better, with a better production and performances.
To be fair, the band ain’t bad or anything. It’s just that they lack musical personality and ideas. Hmm, then what’s the point here? OK you got me! I can’t tell you so! Just take a look at some song titles. “Mr. Starlight” (with the ala Grosskopf bass solo at the end of the song), “Dejà Vu”, “Seventh Angel”, “The Exiled”, “Between the Devil and the Deep” and so on. It can’t get more cliché, overdone & unoriginal than this… or can it be?! The production is also a bit 80s but the mixing wasn’t so good, as I would prefer the drums to be a tad lower.
Please guys give me a good reason why I should listen to a second rate Helloween/Maiden clone and not the originals? Com’ on! Lancer must get things together and decide what they wanna do in their next steps. Obviously, they can’t go on with this “copy/paste thing” forever. They need to step up and do it their way. It’s good to be influenced by some bands but it ain’t that good tryin’ to actually be those bands…