Angel Blake - Angel Blake

[Liu]

Angel Blake - Angel Blake
Metal Blade

Angel Blake is the post-The Crown project by one Marko Tervonen, who was one of the primary songwriters in the former band. Comparisons to another post-The Crown project, Johan Lindstrand's One Man Army And The Undead Quartet will be no doubt made. However, unlike Johan's One Man Army, Tervonen's Angel Blake bears very little similarity to The Crown, opting for a dark heavy metal sound rather than melodic death metal. As an aside, Angel Blake is the far more superior of the two.

Angel Blake allows Marko Tervonen the opportunity to stretch beyond the normal confines of his former band's sound. Instead of vicious death riffs he goes into a far more melodic approach, ringing out chords and acoustics that you'd never hear if The Crown were still active. The sound has alot more in common with latter Sentenced and Amorphis. Marko however doesn't just handle the guitar, he does pretty much everything you hear on the disc except for the vocals, done by Tony Jelencovich. Tony won't win any awards for being an outstanding vocalist, he really isn't. But his voice suits the music well, having a gothic-styled tone.

The songs are pretty catchy, reminding one of Sentenced in various songs. The Forsaken and Lycanthrope sound like they could have been on Down or Frozen. Thousand Storms might be the real album highlight, it doesn't quite fit the Sentenced comparison like the others, showing that Tervonen has a trick or two up his sleeves. The last two songs would be the weakest on the album. The Paint It Black covers don't sound right at all, and its one of the few Rolling Stones albums that I like, so I'm disappointed by their rendition. The last song, ..'Til The End is more of a sign of things to come instead of a grand achievement. The song requires stronger vocal registers than Tony is unable to pull off convincingly, coming across as fairly awkward. The song ends with a neat outro jam that should be considered more of an outro of the album in general.

For his first solo outing, Marko has no doubt made an impression. How far this will develop on album #2 remains to be seem, but I'll be anticipating the future endeavors.


01. The Force
02. Retaliate
03. Lycanthrope
04. Self-Terminate
05. Solitude, My Friend
06. Autumnal
07. The Forsaken
08. Thousand Storms
09. Paint It Black
10. ..'Til The End

Score: 7/10