If there're curses striking upon Eden, let me sin and die in solitude. The brand new alum from multi-national EDEN'S CURSE is soon to hit the stores and - as a proper follow-up CD - raises the question if The Second Coming can surpass the quality and sting of last year's Eden's Curse debut. Is the Logue/Eden duo still at war? They are, so the album - reasonable enough - rocks the house.
First impression: the guest list for this new CD is quite interesting, a big step in fact. Tony Harnell (TNT, WESTWORLD, STARBREAKER) handles the backing vocals in all of the album's songs, Doogie White (RAINBOW, CORNERSTONE, Y. Malmsteen) contributes in the 'Curse Choir' along with the band's solid friend Carsten Schulz (EVIDENCE ONE, DOMAIN, MIDNITE CLUB) and - last but not least - Pamela Moore (yes, the Operation: Mindcrime Sister Mary) duets with Micheal Eden in one song, Angels & Demons (first digital single - download it from the band's MySpace page).
Second impression: the production is relevant to the first album (yeap, Dennis Ward again), meaning brilliant. With volume, loud but not trembling, equal in mix, stepping both in hardness and heaviness. As the band itself...
Released in Japan via Spiritual Beast on 15th of October, in the USA via Metal Mayhem Music on 22nd of October and in Europe via AFM Records on 24th of October, The Second Coming we hope will roll on to provide EDEN'S CURSE with a passport to the major League. Hard 'n' (melodic) Heavy in one: great (again) vocals by Michael, distinct, ample and - most of all - honest. He gets his voice easy-going to the song's requirements, while he steps high when needed. Passionate, he ranges from AOR to melodic Metal in dodgy easiness. Simply awesome.
The guitars work by Thorsten Koehne (CODE OF PERFECTION, ATTACK, ATERIAL) is immense, too: melodic yet heavy, with series of riffs and tons of leads that stick to mind. Well-worked themes, a tension to do it 80s but with a remarkable 'current' mood. The rhythm section, on the other hand, is the top secret. Metalheads will like this album just due to its control; hence the Logue/Newdeck (players for David Readman and GRIM REAPER/Paul Dianno respectively) duo strikes hard and will be a real attraction onstage. The keys of Ferdy Doernberg (RAW SILK, AXEL RUDI PELL, Roland Grapow) wrap up an already magnetic sonic result and paint it up to shades of impatient 'music' air.
For readers not familiar to the band's self-titled debut, it's essential to state EDEN'S CURSE lies on the balanced Hard-meets-(melodic)-Heavy side. PRETTY MAIDS, BONFIRE, PINK CREAM 69, TEN, FAIR WARNING, DOKKEN, this time with more kranking guitars in loud songs (late WHITESNAKE or SHANNON) or some QUEENSRYCHE references. No need to speak on a song-by-song basis in this one (OK, the Moore-related song is nice!). All tunes are excellent, in the typical (haha, already!) EDEN'S CURSE formula. Really would not wait for an equally good - or (even) better! - album; it's one of the cases you're happy while at the same time proven being wrong.
P.S.: Tried to - in the long run - pick up a couple of 'fave' songs in this postscript. Ended up writing nearly the whole tracklist. Proof?...