The Other Side of Fear

Second album for this unsigned band from Germany, and it should get them a lot of attention. Kings Winter are trio playing sharp, polished Heavy Metal with a kick of hard rock attitude in the flashy guitar work and singer Jule Dahs's energetic, hard-edged vocals. This has a definite AOR gloss to it, but the riffs and leads are pure Heavy Metal like we used to get back in the old days. If there is a drawback to this, it's that the songs don't really have big, fist-pumping choruses to stick in your memory, and in general the riffs are better than the vocal melodies. This sounds good while it is on, but it doesn't really stick.