From the beautiful and mystic Greeklands comes the band PLANET OF ZEUS that was created in Athens 24 years ago.The boys are releasing their 6th full album Afterlife independently. The band opened for CLUTCH a few years ago and have played in many festivals in Greece and Europe creating a substantial following, especially in Greece where they are one of the big bands of the genre there. The album starts with some futuristic doom arrangement of keys and a distorted guitar called “Preview Of An Afterlife”. When the instrumental reaches its apex, it ends. Dear Heavy Metal bands, if you are making an introductory instrumental in the beginning of your album, please do something amazing, otherwise it is just a waste of time.

Not that the one in this album is bad, but it should be used as the beginning of the first track ( now 2nd) “Baptized In His Death”, connected and not separated to it. This first real track in the album has a smart guitar riff and you can clearly hear the influence of MASTODON in their sound. Full of riff passages and good song structure. The third track is the good “Step On, Skin Off” and I am liking what I am hearing. Creative and well performed heavy music with varied arrangements and a killer chorus. It is so good to hear bands trying to get out of the common conception of Heavy Rock and twisting their sound a little. Another great track is “No Ordinary Life” that starts with the competent bass of Giannis Vrazos and has a Punk vibe that sounds nostalgic to my ears. This track also has a different tempo arrangement in the middle of the tune changing the mood a little before ending with a crazy scream.

The album gets better as you swallow each track and it shows it has a lot to offer like in the very moody “The Song You Misunderstand” that offers a good basic Hard Rock with all the good ingredients. The band also excels in vocal melody and performance delivered by the good singer Babis Papanikolaou that also helps with the guitars. His voice can go from very melodic to ruff lines and also some crazy screams. The band goes a little teen heavy Rock as you can hear in “Let’s Call It Even” that has also some touches of industrial Metal with a relentless rhythm pattern. Speaking of rhythm, we have a good drummer in Serapheim Giannakopoulos that starts the killer track “Bad Milk” that for me is the highlight in this good album. Groovy drums, great guitar riff and musical structure with some whimsical 70’s Rock touches and good chorus and backing vocals. The also Punk(y) “Letter To A Newborn” keeps the energy up with a simple and direct Hard Rock delivery. The other guitar player in PLANET OF ZEUS is Stelios Provis and I believe he probably takes care of the solos when required, however not every track has them like in the vicious and pulsating “The Vixen”.

The overall production of this album is quite good as expected for a sixth album and the band chemistry is present in every track. We end our journey with the somber “State Of Non Existence” that could be misplaced as a MASTODON song less the intricate arrangements. The bands flirts with Doom, Punk and Hard Rock and is able to mix different moods, creative arrangements and good vocal performance. The entire package is delivered and deserves a download.