Magic Never Dies

England's Power Quest are back with their third album, Magic Never Dies and despite the trend by a few of the more established power metal bands to move away from the speedy sound with their most recent albums (Stratovarius and Freedom Call for example), Power Quest has continued what they do best; writing very speedy and melodic power metal that is big on melody and slightly more keyboard oriented than most others in the genre. Along with fellow countrymen Dragonforce, Power Quest seems to be ignoring the trends and championing speedy power metal to new and even more frenzied heights than ever before. It's almost as if these bands are throwing down the gauntlet and daring other bands to try to play faster. Power Quest is not all about speed. Although many of the tracks fall into the speedy power metal category, there's mid tempo tracks as well as a couple of power ballads to balance things out. However, it's the speedy tracks where Power Quest rocks the hardest and the soaring melodies reach new heights of intensity with some of the most memorable choruses that I've heard from an album so far this year.

After the obligatory epic orchestrated intro with a huge expansive Yes-like sound, Find My Heaven jumps out of the starting gate with very thematic and speedy power metal. The double bass speedy style and muted lead guitar harmonies really remind of Helloween. The song structure is solid and with the soaring vocal melodies, Sonata Arctica comes to mind. The pace continues with Galaxies Unknown, a track that fuses speedy riffs with splashes of colour with the keyboard fills of Steve Williams. This track also has a Helloween, Freedom Call edge and the chorus is huge. I can't help but notice the similarities in the voice of lead vocalist Alessio Garavello and Alan Frew of Glass Tiger, an 80's band from Canada. Think of this track as Glass Tiger on speed and it pretty much sums up how it sounds. The speedy tempos continue with Diamond Sky, another triumphant and melodic epic that uses trumpeting keyboard sounds to augment the riffs. Another very huge and melodic chorus is featured, as are some very tasty thematic guitar and keyboard trade-offs. Strike Force is another track in the same vein that also has a huge soaring chorus. The use of pipe organ keyboard effects in combination with the huge slicing power chords makes for an interesting union. The title track, Magic Never Dies again uses speedy tempos with a rich blend of guitar and keys and the ending track The Longest Night sees Power Quest paying homage to the progressive rock giants Yes especially with the vocals. Acapella vocal harmonies a la Leave It from Yes' 90125 album are followed by speedy riffs with harpsichord keys effects. With the type of rich and soaring vocal melodies, it really reminds me of the Yes of the 80's around the 90125 and Big Generator albums.

More mid tempo and even AOR styles are explored on this album as well with Hold On To Love sounding like an 80's melodic hard rock tune that is very catchy and The Message comes off sounding like a big syrupy power ballad from the 80's "hair metal" era. About breaking off a relationship via a message left on an answering machine, this one's a very powerful and emotional track that's very catchy and if you can stomach the syrupy power ballad style, it's actually a very solid tune. Tracks like Soulfire, Children Of The Dream and Another World see Power Quest slowing down the pace in favor of a more mid tempo approach. All are decent tracks but the choruses to these tracks seems to be lacking the power and melody of the rest of the album.

Fans Of Power Quest know exactly what to expect from this band as far as a new album and this one won't disappoint. I still like Neverworld a bit better than this one but Magic Never Dies is a fine example of how to prodcue quality speedy and hugely melodic power metal. If you're not a fan of the 80's style of syrupy sweet vocal melodies, a couple of tracks may not sit well with you but if you love rich vocal melodies along the lines of Yes and Boston then there's a big surprise with a few of the tracks. This new one from Power Quest is sure not to convert anyone to this type of power metal and those who hate it will still probably hate it after hearing this album. If you like melody and speediness in your metal, give these guys a try. They play it pretty safe but they sure do it well.