A powerful concept album about the tragic experiences in the life of Christine. This is how Germany's DAWN OF DESTINY return with their seventh release to date. Before we dive deep into Christine's struggles, there is something that should be taken out of the way: in the band's bio they claim to be "too diverse to be represented by the moniker 'power metal'...", to be a "quite unique entity in today's music landscape" and to have "a special gift of writing songs...". This really needs to be addressed beforehand. Once you establish expectations that high, you're in for a long fall. In the attempt to validate them, those hyperbolical claims make you really go deep into the technical aspects of the listening experience. And it can't be done.

This is an album made by a majority of songs in 4/4; conventional chord progressions with Ionian melodies for the choruses and Aeolian for the verses; very few tempo changes; drum beats with the snare on 2 and 4 and on the upbeats for the fast parts; descending drum fills always on 16th notes with some occasional triplets and so on. There's nothing that you wouldn't find in the 2000's Power Metal scene in bands like KAMELOT and EPICA and Metal Operas like AVANTASIA. And in a 2019 Metal world with acts like DEVIN TOWNSEND and LEPROUS and a musical world with things like JACOB COLLIER and DIRTY LOOPS going on (to mention just a few), to say that you're too diverse and unique to be labeled is something I would strongly advise against if you have a band.

Having said that, "The Beast Inside" is a strong Power Metal record with solid performances and a good degree of variety and dynamics. Sit down with a glass of your favorite beverage, grab the booklet and listen to it after reading the backup story while following the lyrics. The effort put into a concept album deserves to be appreciated in that manner. It all starts with a melancholic piano/harpsichord that goes into a somber riff followed by the classic Power Metal triplet passage. At the very moment the singer Jeanette Scherff opens her mouth in "The Beast Inside A Beauty" you know you're in for a pleasant journey. Her tone is matured and her delivery is honest and theatrical in the rightest ways. She goes from harsh to soft and melodic with ease and fully explores her range in an even and professional form. The song has a memorable chorus and immediately establishes the strongest aspect of this album: great hooks. Next up, "It's My Fate" slows down the tempo a bit and intersperses acoustic passages with the heavy riffing. In this one the singer starts to shine even more, with a great vibrato and an emotional interpretation of the lyrics that deal with suicidal thoughts. "Pain In Me" is that fast, big chorus, upbeat-snare-hitting that every Power Metal fan loves. It immediately transports you to a packed venue hanging out with friends and having a good time.

"Fight Your Inner Demons" is one of the best songs in the record. It has this marching riff that gives room to develop the melodies and the hooks only grow stronger by that point. To a more production-oriented listener this might be when a few details start missing. The drumming tends to sound too stiff in the whole record. Ghost notes are very loud in the mix and the whole thing sounds either programmed or over-edited. It feels hard to grasp even a glimpse of the drummer's personality in the performance (if there was one). "Peace of Mind" is probably the most different one in the track list. Here we have an aggressive and theatrical male voice in the likes of JON OLIVA trading with the singer Jeanette Scherff and this adds a nice touch to the color palette. It also brings one of the best choruses so far, with a very AOR feeling to it and a cool guitar passage that greatly resembles JOURNEY's Neal Schon licks.

"Looking For A Hero" kicks in with the heavier riff on the album, almost flirting with modern extreme genres of Metal, but soon it comes back to the accessible melodies and sing-along hooks. The song ends with a choir. Its arrangement and rendition are definitely not as good as they could be and here the production loses a bit of value once again. "Signs In The Sky" is a standard Power Metal song that has that joyful SONATA ARCTICA vibe. "Surrounded" is probably the heaviest and most progressive song on the record, both lyrically and sonically, and that is reflected by the growling vocals and the intricate instrumental segment. "Why Am I Here?", "Already Dead" and "If We Close Our Eyes" sound a bit too repetitive and, musically, fulfill roles that were already taken by previous songs. But this is a concept album and the story comes first so, if you're feeling tired at this point, hang in there and follow Christine until the end, for the closer, "Longing", is definitely their highlight as songwriters for this record.

For those who enjoy some Power Metal that's not just about fantasy, dragons and happy times, this is definitely an album you should check out. The story is involving and the singer's delivery is worth the listen in itself. The small production flaws, the lack of a more present drummer and maybe the need of more elaborate guitar solos might drive you away, since the bar for those elements have been set so high within the genre, but there are great moments, nice memorable hooks and an above-average singer. And although they are far from being "unique" or "too diverse to fit" as their bio claims, "The Beast Inside" is definitely worth your attention.