Description

Still sealed 2012 re-issue

Strangers debut album, The Bell, is probably the closest thing to Helloweens Wall Of Jericho out there, an essential release in the ancient German speed metal chapter. Very worthy of hearing and quite possibly very unheard of and underated. So, it takes the band a whopping five years to finally release a new album, and what happens? For starters the entire line-up has changed besides founding guitarist Rikki Wolfgang Rieger (later in Chroming Rose), and this is probably why theres an entirely new sound and direction here. Not a good one either. Only about a minute into this album after hearing those horns, I quickly jumped back, Is this really Stranger?” .. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Gone are the furiously fast rhythm’s, pounding beats, soaring vocals and choruses, ripping solo’s that continue on endlessly. In comes some keyboards, synths, a drastic decrease in speed, silly whistles, terrible themes, ballads left and right, and the disappearance of blood thirsty riffs. Every riff on here is unmemorable to the highest degree. It must be pretty apparent that new secondary guitarist Claus Zeller isn’t nearly as skilled as the previous Wolfgang Pleyer, and its honestly hard to believe they even needed two guitarists here. I can’t even determine what the fastest track on here is, but none of them could even compare to the slowest songs on The Bell. Another major problem here is the repetition. Many of these songs sound way too similar. There are far too many ballads here, hell they could all pass for one.. The most impressive thing here is the cover artwork and for that reason it would look in your collection but comparing this to The Bell is practically like comparing Helloween’s Walls Of Jericho to Chameleon, only I’d take Chameleon over this anyday, and we all know how much of a letdown that release was. This was a major disappointment and isn’t even worth hearing for the fans. This album was the bands ultimate doom, but that was sadly probably a good thing. Get The Bell and adore that one. Get this one to complete your collection but leave it sealed in your shelf to avoid dissapointment

Track list:
1. Dont Give It Up
2. Heartbeat
3. Pretty Angels
4. Now Youve Gone
5. I Surrender
6. Child Of Violence
7. Fighting For Your Love
8. Is This Love
9. How Will I Know