After his work with the German metal heavy-weights Accept, Herman Frank has been a part of several projects and bands including Sinner, Victory and Moon Doc. This is however his first release under his own name, and while I heard lots of great stuff about this before it was released, I had never expected that it would be of this caliber. To assist him on this slugger is Jiotis Pacharidis, earlier in Human Fortress on vocals, Peter Pichl from Running Wild on bass and former Accept-buddy Stefan Schwarzmann on drums. In other words, a band that is definitely worthy the super-group label. Loyal to None is setting the tone early for a year that is going to be great for heavy metal, as both Heaven & Helland Iron Maiden have scheduled albums coming out. Hell, who knows if this will even reach farther than any of those at the end of the year when awards are handed out?

Herman Frank mixes up a rather tasty dose of traditional heavy metal with a crisp 80’s-rock feel to it. Imagine Accept, Dio and Whitesnake thrown into a blender and whatever the outcome would be Herman Frank. This is all about awesome riffing, distinct and crunchy vocals and rhythm work that’ll make you bang your head to the pounding drums. Jioti Pacharidis does one hell of a job with the vocals which are, aside from the guitar-work, a definite highlight here. Imagine a slightly more guttural and more modern Dio crossed with the likes of Jorn Lande. Instead of sounding like your castrated cat, he concentrates on delivering balls-out hairy heavy metal soars, that’ll make a bunch of other heavy metal vocalists look pale in comparison. Let’s just say that this album wouldn’t have been anywhere near of the same quality if the overrated Michael Kiske, yeah I said that, were doing the vocals here. As for the other instrumentalists, and especially the guitarist obviously, there is no question about who’s being in charge here and that he knows what he’s doing. The main man behind this whole band slices and dices and delivers riff from the top drawer. They’re simple yet energetic, crunchy with the mentioned slight 80’s-twist to them and are mostly fast-paced. In other words they’ll strike you like a tornado. As you have probably understood by now, the guitars are unquestionably the definite highlight of this album as Frank combines the influences stuck in his head from every band he’s been in and worked with to establish some pretty decent songwriting-skills. Some songs are of course better than others, seeing as some cuts like the stunning opener Moon II, and the power metal anthem Down to the Valley are instant jaw-droppers and incredibly fun to listen to. His leads are as stellar as ever, and varying in strength, shape and form. Backed up by the blazing skin-punishing of Shwarzmann, this becomes whole. A fulfilled guitar-driven heavy metal record that you should not wait to get your filthy hands on.

With newer Saxon-like heavy metal in mind, Herman Frank and his powerful machinery stomps through the fields leaving foot-prints in the ground as a result of this, their great debut Loyal to None. If you’re a sucker for heavy metal at its finest, and can’t ever get enough of those catchy beats, blazing guitar-solos and wailing vocals, then this is for you my friend. Loyal to None marks another peak in Herman Frank’s mountainous chain of quality releases. Very Highly recommended.