Prince Vigo von Homburg Deutschendorf, the Scourge of Carpathia and the Sorrow of Moldavia; the main antagonist in the second "Ghostbusters" feature film has quite a backstory, both in-universe and in real life. It seems the fella who portrayed him on screen was not the most pleasant man ever, and other tales from behind the scenes paint a portrait about as grim as the one shown in the movie.

Small wonder then that he should be an inspiration to Heavy Metal, the darker side of the musical spectrum, after all. In fact, the whole Ghostbusters franchise has gone to inform a lot of fan creativity. Among them, from Germany's southwest, is LORD VIGO, a sextet (with a core trio) Epic/Power Doom band whose fifth album, "We Shall Overcome", has been released as the second in a trilogy. A valiant effort, to be sure, but listeners may notice a large amount of sizzle and not much of a steak.

Averageness seems an ill-fitting word to describe a genre combo not often witnessed, but right off the bat with an odd 80's movie style intro leading into "The Heart Of Eternal Night", which features a voice-over speaking some overworked sci-fi lines to start it off. Power/Doom is more prevalent to start, adding more Epic for "Natural Habitat", and a little more Doom for "Since The Sun Was Young".

All in all this is the formula for much of the album's remainder. The tempo switches gears over tracks like the eponymous "We Shall Overcome", the closer "A Dark New Age", and on "A Gathering Of Clouds", the latter of which uses the VO again with eye-rolling results.

If there are any standouts, anything worthy of the year-long playlist, one would have to be "A Necessary Evil", though this song has a much more conventional Epic/Heavy feel than the others. Another decent track is the 80's-era IRON MAIDENish "From Our Ashes We Will Rise", but the caveat here is another use of the tired VO. Even so, either track could find a place on Metal radio/podcasts who need to fill time.

So what are you getting on "We Shall Overcome"? Considering the numbers, it feels like there should be a lot more here. There are eleven tracks but three are short segue tracks. The remaining eight songs clock in at over forty-five minutes altogether, which sounds a bit long anyways, never mind the monotony of each one individually. If you get this album for your work-outs or to pass a long commute, then you at least will be getting what you've paid for.

Unfortunately, the fifth dart thrown by LORD VIGO hits the board but is way off the bull's-eye. Yes there have been worse efforts by less talented bands, but even by that comparison, "We Shall Overcome" just comes up short. A couple worthy tracks aside, there's just nothing to really sink teeth into, nothing to get really excited about. We know LORD VIGO has done good work in the past, so maybe there's still a hope for album six to (ahem) overcome this effort.