Dragons, tits and virtuoso guitar playing, these are often seen as the stereotypical hallmarks of power metal. Yet, dig beneath this stereotype and the listener will find melody, intricacy and stories that are so gripping, it becomes the audio version of a movie or thrilling television series. One of those bands are Mentalist who on the back on their hotly received debut album ‘Freedom of Speech’ last year, the band are back with their sophomore album ‘A Journey into the Unknown’.
For Mentalist, ‘A Journey…’ continues the momentum that had been laid down on the band’s previous album. This band is a real powerhouse, Mentalist deliver another colossal album with great songs that are strong on melody and sing-a-long chorus’ that are easy to remember demanding the listener raise their fist in the air and yell. Tracks such as ‘Evil Eye’, ‘Modern Philosophy’ and the rather amusing ‘Dentalist’ smash down the gauntlet in quick fire romps that show just how good this band is at crafting their songs and even the albums longer tracks at the latter end of ‘A Journey…’ stand tall without being stale or dull.
Granted, there isn’t anything here that hasn’t been done before and ‘A Journey…’ is a little predictable. However, who actually cares? Mentalist know what they are doing and they do it very well and any fan of melodic power metal would do well to pick up a copy.
