WARRIOR PATH hails from Athens, Greece. The Power Metal band hypes itself with the members, one being ex-FIREWIND keyboardist Bob Katsionis. On their sophomore album, the album features LOST HORIZON vocalist Daniel Heiman, who is kind of a legend in some Power Metal circles. This alone creates a standard to live up to, and I admit, I had some sky high expectations because of it. Read on to see what the result of my high expectations led to.

The album opens with a solid instrumental track "It Has Begun" and leads into the title track. "The Mad King" has a medieval sounding intro before the guitar riffs come in. The lyrics introduce the tale of King Lear in a pretty straight forward way; the music didn't really add to the words being sang though. "His Wrath Will Fall" lacked any feeling of wrath or anger at all. The guitar work was fine, but the melody felt similar to the previous track. "Beast of Hate" once again felt disconnected to the lyrics. A song about a beast and the melodies lacked any feeling of danger whatsoever.

"Don't Fear the Unknown" had some major buildup in the intro then kind of went through the motions sound-wise again.  There was finally a bit of dramatic flair with some choirs and some tasty shred in the heart of the track though, which was most welcomed! "Savage Tribe" is mainly Daniel finally going wild with his soaring high notes and vast vocal range. The acoustic interlude leading into the solo section felt a bit out of place, but it still created some interesting atmosphere. "Avenger" finally kicks the album into high gear. The layered vocals were pretty rad, the melodies had a motivating energy to them, I was finally feeling what the lyrics were expressing on this one.

"Out From the Shadows" was another fun song that had me wanting to bang my head along. Just the right amount of feel-good Power Metal vibes to keep my attention. "Neverending Fight" wasn't bad, wasn't anything intriguing either, just like the first half of the album. "Last Tale" is honestly a great closing song. The vocals were massive and actually told the story. The orchestration was well done along with the cool and epic melodies and transitions as a valiant battle was fought. Plus the solo section took it to another level. This album most certainly ends on a high note (literally and figuratively).

Overall, "The Mad King" is a solid Power Metal album. The first half was honestly, pretty forgettable. The melodies sounded similar to each other and there just wasn't any feeling whatsoever in any element of the songs. Thankfully, the longer tracks saved the album from feeling completely generic. The atmosphere building seems to be the band's strong suit and it seemed to shine brightest in the songs that were 6 minutes or longer. The last five songs were more enjoyable for certain, even though there were still the lack of feeling/emotion issues I felt in the beginning of the album at times. I admittedly had too high of expectations with the higher profile names involved with this project, so that may have also been a part of why this fell flat for me. Can't help but expect epic proportions with a former member of FIREWIND and a vocal legend in the mix... but instead, "The Mad King"  felt more like the "slightly bothered king" at most.