The recording process of a self-financed heavy metal album can take a little while due to budget constraints - but can be hampered a little more if you don't have a steady drummer. Which is the case in this debut album release "Evolution of Thoughts" from German Heavy Metal band INVOLUTION. The current four-piece act released a demo "Higher Reach" in 2011, and now we have 11 songs to digest and see what they push from their creative banks and through our speakers.

After a few spins, the material has a lot of old school Power qualities in terms of some of the gallop-oriented tempos, but then you also feel that things veer occasionally into the Folk/Epic territory, especially because the vocals from Erdmann Görg are not of the straight ahead soaring variety. When the band wants to go off the races, the guitar duo of Marcel Levermann and Bastian Wehowsky are a formidable team, flying up and down their fretboards and providing synchronized harmony heroics on highlight, "Inner Denial".

"A Kind of Satellite" reaches Thrash proportions, the riffing slightly Progressive and adventurous - but Erdmann attempts a couple of high screeching screams that do not sound convincing, and he would be best served continuing to explore his mid-range and lower versatility, as he has enough attitude and power to pull this off in a BRAINSTORM meets Warrel Dane manner. INVOLUTION musically thrill me because they have a way of injecting cultural themes in major keys but still not succumbing to typical HELLOWEEN melodies - probably more in line with RAGE, RUNNING WILD, and even a little bit of Sweden's FALCONER on tracks such as "My Own Mind" or the slightly moodier "Another Torch".

In the end, "Evolution of Thoughts" puts the band in a good light, and for those who enjoy Melodic Heavy Metal with nods to Power and Thrash plus plenty of hefty guitar work will delight in INVOLUTION.<