AZRAEL's "King of the Steely Nation"

Artist: AZRAEL (Japan)
Album: King of the Steely Nation (2000)

Oh wow, I can already tell this is going to be some sort of power metal. Que the dragons and Dargor, the Shadowlord of the Black Mountain (if you know what band that's a reference to, you are a fucking nerd).

Knight in the Night.
Knight in the Night.
My brain... is broken. What a pun. Oh, what a pun. What a fantastic pun, even for power metal standards.
Dear god.

Don't get me wrong, I adore power metal, I always have. Rhapsody, Dragonland, ARK STORM... I eat this shit up. I love dragons and orbs and wizards and shit.
Typical of Japanese power metal, the vocals are in English. Incomprehensible, unintelligible English.
Typical of most power metal, it sounds similar to everything else in the genre. Don't even try to distinguish between power metal bands. It's pretty hard sometimes.
So, Behind the Mask falls into that rut. It's pretty good, but it's not great or anything. The guitar solo was pretty badass, though.We
By the way, Behind the Mask is a Yellow Magic Orchestra song, you guys. You got me all confused because I'm an idiot. My first thought was, "OH MY, they did a cover of YMO?!".

Track three is Beyond the Wall. Ohhh, I see: "Behind the mask, beyond the wall"... Maybe I don't see.
Well, it has the same problem as Behind the Mask. It just doesn't hold up compared to the others. There are many other bands that sound like this, but are much better. They aren't really unique enough for me to truly like, even if they do happen to be rather good.

Well, King of the Steely Nation better be great if the album is named after it.
....
Sorry, it just doesn't cut it. I'm going to forget these tracks the second I press the next button on my iPod. It's just the sad truth, AZRAEL.

Hold on to the Young Love sounds like some upbeat 90s theme song... My god, no, AZRAEL, no... It's just embarrassing. Stop this, stop this right now.
Wait, I can stop it myself. Next!!

Sorry, I couldn't take more of that.
Shadowdancer follows up that gem. It's... I just don't know what to say. All the tracks blend into each other, and I get bored with albums like these.
The keyboards are awfully neat, though.

Track whatever I lost track is Burning Down. It starts with piano. Oh god, oh god, don't be a sappy ballad. You already got enough embarrassment from Hold on to the Young Love.
Oh Christ, this is even more shameful. It's not good. It's really lame. Yes, I know that power metal in general is lame, but power ballads? Come on. Try to out cheese that. You can't.

Okay, so that was kind of painful. Lethal Lover starts with that cool keyboard that I like. Good, good. Except that it fucking sounds the same as all the others! Fuuuuck.
(Are you noticing that I'm getting less and less sympathetic as the albums drags on?)
The falsetto in the chorus is good. There, a compliment.

Break the Ice... I sat here for a while trying to think of some witty joke to go along with that, but I just can't. My mind is so numb. Before I knew it, the song was over.

Talking Your Heart already has a flaw, right from the start: The title makes no sense. But, English isn't their first language, so I'd be a dick to criticize that. I really wish these bands would just suck it up and sing in Japanese. Yeah, it's not as "hip", I guess, but I'm sure the lyrics would be much better. If I could understand this, I'm sure the lyrics aren't top of the line. You know, I'm just being brutally honest here.
And you see that? I'm so bored at this point that I forgot to even listen to the damn song. It's a little obnoxious from what I heard.

Oh dear, there is a God. Close to the Soul is the last track. At one point, I began worrying, "Is there an end to this fresh hell?".
(It's not that bad, I just love being an asshole.)
What can I say? It's really just jghhguhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjj

hgggggggggggg

Huh, what? Oh hell, it seems like I fell asleep.. Well, at least it's over.

2 out of 5.
It seems awfully generous after all my complaints, doesn't it? Well, in a technical sense, this album is quite good. It's just completely stale and feels like it's constraining itself to just one sound. And that sound is uninteresting. Sorry, AZRAEL.