ASTRAL DOORS – New Revelation

Astral Doors is a Swedish Heavy Metal band that was formed back in 2002. This formation however actually began back in 1998 when vocalist Nils Patrik Johansson and drummer Johan Lindstedt were in the band Barfly together. That band was strongly influenced by Black Sabbath and Deep Purple and eventually broke up in 2002. The engineer for their last demo recording happened to be guitarist Joachim Norlund, who Lindstedt began writing with soon after. Those two contacted Johansson who agreed to join them in their new endeavor, which turned out to be Astral Doors. Joakim Roberg, the keyboardist/organist and Martin Haglund were the last two pieces of the puzzle. Originally it was Haglund who was asked to join as the bassist but he decided to turn to guitar in 2003 to give the band more of a dual guitar attack sound and at that time Mika Itäranta was asked to take over those chores.

To date, Astral Doors has had three studio releases and one EP release. Their fourth and latest release is entitled New Revelation. After the band’s third studio release, Astralism (March 2006), the band went out on a two-month tour to support headliners Blind Guardian. After a very successful tour, they began writing new material and went straight into the studio totally open-minded, full of energy and ideas, with the intentions of bringing Astral Doors to new dimensions. They put everything they had into coming up with New Revelation. The result is nothing short of amazing — their masterpiece to date.

There is something else quite unique about this Melodic Progressive Metal band — that is Nils Patrik Johansson, whose singing has brought critical acclaim to himself and is often compared to the great vocalist Ronnie James Dio. Listening to this album and not knowing the band behind this eleven track release, one would swear it to be a Dio album at first. That is how on Nils is with his singing and his fabulous voice. Don’t say you weren’t warned. The music itself tends to follow in the trend of a Rainbow/Deep Purple/Uriah Heep/Dio/Black Sabbath/Whitesnake/Coverdale style and is hard to reject in terms of listenability. What makes their sound even more special is the fact that Hypocrisy/Pain vocalist/guitarist Peter Tägtgren has mixed every one of their albums and is like the seventh member of the band. Also worth mentioning is the fact that Astral Doors have been under the Locomotive label ever since their debut release Of the Son and the Father, (2004) which was released as Cloudbreaker (2003) in Japan because of its offensive cover. The Japanese release also has two extra bonus tracks that the Western version lacks.

All eleven tracks are worth listening to and each one is unique in its own right. Nils Patrik Johansson especially shines on certain tracks. These are the title track “New Revelation,” “Freedom War,” “Pentecostal Bound,” “Waiting for the Master,” and “Mercenary Man.” Guitarists Martin Haglund and Joachim Norlund lay down some killer riffs and some melodic leads as well. These are most noticeable on “Bastard Son” considered to be the band’s ballad song — their “Mistreated” or “Stairway To Heaven,” so to speak. The other noteworthy tracks include “Waiting For The Master,” “Quisling,” “Cold War Survivor,” which has some great leads, “The Gates Of Light,” “Shores of Solitude” (another track with incredible guitar work), and “Mercenary Man” the longest track of the bunch. Organist Joakim Roberg’s fueling intensity can more or less be heard on every track but his work is highlighted in “Pentecostal Bound,” “Waiting For the Master,” “Cold War Survivor,” and “Shores of Solitude.” Drummer Johan Lindstedt’s carefree and reckless abandon but calculated style doesn’t overpower nor is it overshadowed in any event. His playing fits perfectly on almost every level throughout and his better work can be heard in “Planet Earth,” “Quisling,” “The Gates of Light” where he is brilliant, and “Mercenary Man.” The one fault if there must be a mention of one is perhaps the fact that bassist Mika Itäranta’s bottom end could be a smidgeon louder on all tracks. He can be heard slightly better on the one track “Planet Earth” playing in conjunction with Johan Lindstedt.

The two gems on New Revelation are the ballad “Bastard Son” and the longest track “Mercenary Man” that has a very eerie beginning, several progressive movements throughout the song and a very surreal and mysterious ending at the same time. There is a lot more information that can be had regarding the band’s history, their discography, and some additional facts by clicking on the following links. Astral Doors is a band that will appeal to a wide cross section of Rock fans out there and New Revelation is one of the most exciting releases within the Metal/Progressive Metal/Melodic Metal genre so far this year.