The Ivory Knight review came up kind of funny. I was browsing Metal websites, downloading the mp3s that were there, checking out new music, then within a couple of days of being at their website I got the assignment of reviewing their latest release, Unconscience.  When I received the promo kit it came in a folder that said Ivory Knight: Classic Heavy Metal and once I listened to just the first minute of the first track, Up From The Ashes, I could not agree more.
The history of Ivory Knight can be traced back as far as the late 1980's.  The mastermind behind them, vocalist John Perinbam started the band with Annihilator drummer Paul Meleek along with other band members. They recorderd two demos, but Perinbam was unsatisfied with these recordings.
They then changed the name of the band to Sudden Thunder. They produced one album, then the rest of the band members left except for Perinbam. Perinbam then spent time doing other projects such as Talespyn and The Broke Brothers before he readopted the Ivory Knight moniker in 1999. He then brought the replacement guitarist from Sudden Thunder, Rob Gravelle, along with bass player Steve Mercer and drummer George Nesrallah. They then record Up From The Ashes in 2001 and then Unconscience in 2005. That brings us to the present.
Like I said earlier, the first time I heard Ivory Knight was from a snippet from the band's website and at that point I was really diggin' the music, but the singer I was having a problem getting into. Then, when I heard the actual album, I could not believe the difference that it made for the vocals, they sounded about 1000% better. Ivory Knight has some definite influences in Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, I would assume also Annihilator being that their album is produced by Jeff Waters (Annihilator mainman), but I have never really listened to Annihilator.
The highlights of the album are pretty much everything from the excellent guitars to pumping double bass from the drums as well as the excellent range of Perinbam. Some unexpected things that arose from the album were the occasional insertion of keyboards and a Death Metal growl; I was pleasantly pleased by both... On the whole this is a solid release, nothing ground breaking, but definitely a solid classic Heavy Metal release.