The long awaited (at least for me anyway!!) follow-up to last years Witch Dance is finally here. Witch Dance was one of the better albums from last year as far as I'm concerned and Last Tribe convinced me that they are one of the best melodic heavy metal bands around. This new album, The Uncrowned is another solid album and should prove to the listening audience that these guys are the real deal and have passed the ultimate test for any band; following up a great album with one that equals or even surpasses it in quality.

Guitarist Magnus Karlsson and company have delivered an album that is both heavier and even more melodic than the previous Witch Dance album. The sound is bigger and heavier and the band infuses a more dramatic sense into their sound that results in another very high quality melodic metal record. Every track has lots of heavy power chord guitar riffs and lots of flashy lead fills and the vocals of Rickard Bengtsson are absolutely brilliant!! He may well be one of the better all round vocalists in this genre of metal and you're really missing out if you're not familiar with the band. Lots of pounding heavy guitar and drums with sprinkles of atmospheric keyboards are the norm for most of the tracks but the band manages to speed things up a little on a few tracks with a couple of killer power ballads for good measure. The use of speedy and very well syncopated guitar and keyboard arpeggios gives the band a bit of a retro-70's Rainbow feel but they still manage to create a fresh and melodic heavy metal sound.

The most striking thing about this album are the choruses to the songs. Every track has a great rich and melodic chorus that uses the warm vocal layering styles that Queensryche uses and the clarity and tone really reminds me of the mid 80's Journey sound when Steve Perry and company were in their prime. Track after track, this album delivers and although a few of the choruses fall a bit short in quality compared to the rest, nonetheless they're still way above average than many other bands in this genre of metal. The richness and melodic sound really reminds me of Sonata Arctica only without the speediness. The drumming is both powerful and fierce at times and adds a lot of punch and power to the band's sound.

A couple of things were noticeable with this release that are different than the Witch Dance album. After about 4 or 5 songs, the album settles into a formula whereby several tracks have a very similar sound and structure to them and Magnus Karlsson, although providing some amazing and melodic leads, decides to go off on a shredding frenzy of ascending scale runs on a few tracks that I really think are not necessary. I would've preferred a more expressive melodic soloing style for those tracks but, to each his own.

Overall, another great album by this Swedish band, and one that any fan of melodic heavy metal should not be without. I think this band is here to stay and all they need is more exposure. The quality is there in every way and they've really perfected an energetic, heavy and very melodic style. The world needs to know about Last Tribe (if they already don't!!), it would be a tragedy if lack of exposure prevents this band from achieving the success that they deserve with the quality of their music and the killer sound like they have.