Hard 20 |
Pharaoh"The Longest Night" This is Pharaoh's second album, and they've continued in the tradition of their debut, playing classic style/power metal, with no frills, nothing fancy, just pure heavy metal, played with raw talent, like it was meant to be. Pharaoh are influenced by metal masters like Maiden, Helloween, Anthrax, and Manowar. Vocalist Tim Aymar has a strong, powerful, operatic voice, melodic but aggressive, in the vein of Eric Adams or Virgin Steele's David DeFeis. Guitarist Matt Johnsen, meanwhile, works some wizardry with his axe, cranking out those classic metal riffs like there's no tomorrow, while bassist Chris Kerns and drummer Chris Black make up a killer rhythm section. A very talented band. The album goes full throttle from beginning to end. The opening cut, "Sunrise", has a bit of trippy feel to it and even some jazz influence, while the closer is an instrumental called "Never Run". This one reminded me bit of Maiden's "Lossfer Words", with a tad of "Flash Of The Blade" thrown into the mix. The rest of the songs are fist pumping, riff happy, anthemic metal tunes straight out of the 80s! Pharaoh is a band that is taking the classic sound of heavy metal into the future, and beyond, and doing a great job of it! All hail the mighty Pharoah! |