It is a known fact that Mike Amott is a guitar god; he has proven his ability to abuse a six-stringer over the years with CARCASS, ARCH ENEMY and of course SPIRITUAL BEGGARS. Sure, Mike was accused to be nothing but a show off poser by the old time stoner devotees when they started to break it big. Great guitar playing and amazing solos didn't go down well with that bunch of music fans. That's just as much bullshit as the grunge trend was a fresh breeze in the music scene, like my style is no style...

To me SPIRITUAL BEGGARS has been the perfect mix between Stoner and Thrash, sure the riffs are way more BLACK SABBATH than SLAYER of course but the drive and Spice's rough vocals could absolutely be traced to the Thrash genre. Even with Spice out of the band they managed to stay within the style though it sounded a bit different.

With "Return To Zero" there's been changes in the camp once more, out with JB (now in GRAND MAGUS) and Sharlee D'Angelo (also in ARCH ENEMY, WITCHERY and more), in with Apollo Papathanasio. It can't be pointed out enough time how damn good a singer Apollo is and for me, it was a pleasant surprise when they announced him as the new vocalist of the band. After seeing him live with EVIL MASQUERADE my fantasy started to wander and I thought about how damn cool his voice could be with Mike's super heavy riffs.

If "Return To Zero" would have been from any other band it would have been a great album, probably something I would recommend to most anyone into 70's Metal but as a SPIRITUAL BEGGARS album it's just mediocre. That has nothing to do with Apollo's effort, it's just everything. As I mentioned SPIRITUAL BEGGARS has been synonymous with heaviness and drive, this one has neither. It's somewhere in the boundaries between 70's Metal, Stoner and plain NWOBHM and when you mellow out the attack in the NWOBHM you have nothing. Nonetheless, there are some really nice pieces of music on this record. The immediate favorite, which is the one furthest away from the BEGGARS sound, "Spirit In The Wind", an mainly acoustic piece drawing towards KANSAS or BLUE ÖYSTER CULT. Here Mike sure get to shine because it's really beautiful and melodic. Super heavy "The Chaos Of Rebirth" is also a favorite even if that one is just as far away from the original sound as the first song mentioned.

This one is probably the best song on the album because it has some of the old drive, that together with a touch of the heaviest album ever released, HEAVEN AND HELL's "The Devil You Know" sound doesn't make it any worse. Then there are songs as "Star Born" or "We Are Free" which probably will work for the bigger mass but the riffs for the latter are like any beginners' band who decided to play BLACK SABBATH influenced music and didn't know any better. This one though has the best Hammond parts, Per Wiberg sure has been hidden in the dark a little on this album. Ok, there are keyboards on it but mainly piano-parts which makes the music light weight and draws more towards Country than Metal. "Coming Home" smells THIN LIZZY while "Concrete Horizon" sounds like a melodic late 80's Hard/Hair/Heavy Metal track. It has great melodies and flawless playing of course. That's so hard with judging this record, since it is extremely well played. The production is great, crisp and clear but still with a touch of the 70's. Sure, they've been going in this direction since "Ad Astra", step by step with every release so the style isn't really a surprise and that is fine still they have the potential to do so much more. I wouldn't be surprised if SPIRITUAL BEGGARS gains a lot from this release, get a broader fan base but I think many of the ones who has followed the band over the years will feel the same as I do.

If this is, as the title indicates this is sort of a new start, from nothing, fine by me. I believe in creative freedom and bands have all the right to develop but I still think SPIRITUAL BEGGARS has lost what was best with them in the past, the heaviness and the drive.