ELA, of Stuttgart, Germany, have released four albums to date: "Passion" (2008) "Make My Day" (2009) "Nervous Breakdown" (2015) and lastly "Second Reality" this year. Roxx herself has a fairly rough voice rather like a higher-pitched Doro Pesch; it works well enough, occasionally sounding like a female version of Sebastian Levermann from ORDEN OGAN (especially on "House of Lords") on this album. However, the band most people will probably think of when listening to ELA are the modern standard-bearers of female-fronted power metal BATTLE BEAST.

It's a more superficial resemblance than at first blush. ELA are noticeably more steeped in a mild prog/power tradition than their Finnish peers. Generally, the harmonic chord progressions are pretty unorthodox and give you something to chew while enjoying the power/heavy metal more generally. BRAINSTORM comes to mind in this regard. The band explore a decent variety of sounds here. "Revenge" even sounds like dark prog group EPYSODE with a gothic power metal twist (imagine if Liv Kristine joined and influenced said band - an end result a little like a cheesier XYSTUS?). You can hear some SEVEN KINGDOMS in "Varus" and "Lizzie Borden's Rhyme". The major-chord melody in the chorus "Warcraft" calls DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT to mind. "Welcome to Zombieland" features a bridge that uses the same sequence of notes as the "World of Pure Imagination" song from Willy Wonka but otherwise remains reminiscent of PARAGON.

Even the stupid stuff is fun. "Deadly Sins" has some call-and-response parts with some of the worst harsh vocals I've ever heard, but they're too funny to hate. The ballad "Black Roses" is hilarious from the first note sung because in the verse sections Roxx occasionally slips into a vocal affect that sounds very much like a nervous teenager performing at a talent show. It also has a spoken word section (one of three such cases on this album), an instant red flag for the lactose-intolerant listener. "Witch of Salem" is the obligatory "historical revisionist social justice take on witchcraft" song, and the presence of both male and female spoken word section makes this by far the most hilarious four minutes on the album. Roxx's voiceovers here certainly do sound like a witch - specifically, the Wicked Witch of the West, about five appletinis into a bachelorette bender. This would be pretty funny even if the song weren't trying to get you to feel sorry for the accused sorceress.

This isn't a great power metal outing, but it's adventurous enough to stand out. The album is at least entirely enjoyable, which is more than I can say for many genre efforts both comedic and grave. In terms of the music, despite the corny elements here ELA deserve to be taken seriously.