Jingle - Lucifer's PrayerFlaming Row – Father's Theme
Ad Infinitum – See You In Hell
Dynazty – Unholy Deterrent
Pyramaze – Forsaken Kingdom
Daydream XI – The Guts of Hell
Evergrey – Unforgivable
The Unity – The God of Temptation
The Ferrymen – A New Evil
Epysode – Now and Forever
First Impression - While the songs fit well together, I don't know that they support the narrative enough.
So this starts with the little piano interlude of Father's Theme. Not off to a great start
Then we jump into See You In Hell. I'd heard of Ad Infinitum before, but never gave them a listen. I'm liking this song. Great vocals, nice moody buildup that explodes into the chorus of crunchy yet melodic guitars. A fairly short, but sweet song. Unholy Deterrent kind of falls into the fairly generic power/heavy metal genre. I'm getting an Evergrey meets Thunderstone vibe from this. It's not a bad song, but a notable step down from See You In Hell. And I actually like the vocalist here better than either Tom Englund or Pasi Rantanen. Next up is Forsaken Kingdom which is a song that I know and like. I've been a Pyramaze fan for a long time now. This is a great pick from their best album! The Guts of Hell work well stylistically and thematically. The only problem I have with this song is the less than stellar production compared to the rest of the songs here. There are some great riffs and soloing here and the vocalist reminds me a lot of Russell Allen. Unforgivable isn't a great song. I'm not really a fan of their stuff from Recreation Day through Hymns for the Broken. I really don't like Tom Englund's vocals here either. Not much happens that excites me in this song. The God of Temptation is next. This would be a pretty good song if not for the striking metal sound that happens on the snare hits in various sections of the song. I just don't like it. Other than that I'm getting some Tad Morose and DGM vibes from this. The vocalist is competent enough. Next is A New Evil. This is a
song! And I thought I recognized the vocalist, it's Ronnie Romero from Lords of Black. I like him. And I guess Magnus Karlsson is in this band as well. That makes sense, I can hear his guitar style all across this. This is just a great song with a great guitar solo in the second half! Now and Forever feels like a great way to end this album musically. Especially with the trading male/female vocals. Works as a compliment to Ad Infinitum in the beginning and a counterpoint to the whole middle section of the EP. Pretty great music for the most part with just a couple of clunkers.
Song Score - 7.4/10
So I see what you are going for with the theme of twisting the Lord's Prayer into Lucifer's Prayer using the song titles as the backbone for the theme. The first 2 tracks actually kind of work for this lyrics wise (well the 2nd track, since the first has no lyrics). Actually I can see Unholy Deterrent working lyrically sort of. Lines like "Unleash the unholy deterrent, Abandon the laws of humanity, Strike down and rule them in terror" help. Forsaken Kingdom actually works quite well in possibly telling the story of how Satan fell from grace and is now the ruler over a forsaken kingdom and how he can't get out. The more I think about it, the more I'm liking how this story is turning out. The Guts of Hell tells of the tortures going on in hell and souls crying out for help in vain. I think I see what you were going for with Unforgivable, it could be the recounting of someone commiting an unforgivable sin that lands them in Hell. The God of Temptation and A New Evil kind of follow along the same lines of thought. The last song is the only one I have a problem with thematically and kind of takes me out of the story/theme. I thought the theme overall was interesting/unique, although I think it could have been pulled off a little more elegantly. I also struggled with whether or not this really fits the Sci-Fi theme, so I came up with a compromise and gave you half a point for the bonus theme.
Story Score - 7/10 +0.5 for bonus theme
So I was actually pretty impressed with the way everything flowed together without any editing. The intro track to See You In Hell-Unholy Deterrent-Forsaken Kingdom-Guts of Hell all worked pretty well. The weird production of Guts of Hell kind of ruined things for a moment. Also the transitions from Unforgivable to God of Temptation to A New Evil could have done with some editing. Other than that it mostly flows well, with nothing too jarring.
Flow Score - 7/10
Overall Score - 21.9/30