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I really disliked the self-titled (felt bland and I also had issues with the production) but this one flows great and sounds great. Great album from a great power metal singer that mostly avoids the wailing type of vocals I can't stand.

Awesome album and great year ender along with Theocracy and Harmony.

Sounds like this will be the closest thing to a new Angra for a while.

...I'll have to look into this band.

http://www.metalreviews.com/phpBB2/view ... hp?t=11899

One of my albums of the year....

I prefer this to their last album.

I love the "new" Angra, but didn't really care for Almah's last release (a little too generic Heavy Metal for me). This one is wonderful, as more of an Angra album than the previous Almah. Some parts were pretty heavy (for Power Metal). I love both the more progressive aspects of the last Angra album and the pure Power Metal of Rebirth, this is a nice return to the latter. The album as a whole reminds me of how they did Acid Rain and Heroes of Sand... my favorite songs from Rebirth.

I'd avoid purchasing Almah's self titled debut, Mr. Gollum. Since there isn't a review of the first album, I might as well say a few words about it. It doesn't sound at all the same, even the vocals are different. His vocal style just doesn't go right with some of the songs. Also, instead of singing on some songs he just... says words one at a time with breaks between. The album is more old heavy metal infused with some thrash-tendencies. I really don't like the production for most of the songs, either; on EVERY song they continue it onto the next (so if you are going through the album on shuffle or don't play it in order, you will hear echoing of the chorus of the last song in the following song). It works on some songs when they are supposed to be linked together (like Dream Theater), but it is more of a nuisance here than anything. It sounds like a trial run of some things Falaschi wanted to try out, not an album.

...of course, that IS what an album is. It really is a miracle that a lot of them sound good enough to listen to more than a few times.

Nah, it's very evident on their debut album Almah. On King, Falaschi literally sings like this:
Drown. Ed. By. The. Fury. Of the evolu. Tion times. You. Lose all...
Eventually he gets on track for the chorus, but then jumps back into the crap again. The guitars on half the song just sound horrible... and King is supposed to be the song on the album. It sounds like a bad attempt at old school thrash. I'm just glad they dropped all of that and made a quite-good Angra album instead.

That was an interesting trick, because if you picked it up, he was singing every other word and then overdubbing the rest of the vocals on another track.

Thankfully, or regrettably, it could have gone either way, but they should have mixed that better to point out what they did.

I don't hear it. I've been listening to the song so much recently though that I am actually beginning to like it though… it's crazy.

I could be wrong. It could have been a trick involving echos, reverb, ect. that made his notes sustain past when he started another syllable. Not likely though since we don't hear it everywhere on it.

I liked the song King, but didn't get past maybe the first four tracks on the debut because it was fairly awful.