Denner / Shermann : "Masters of Evil"

Here is the full length from the two ex- Mercyful Fate guitarists. Former King Diamond drummer, Snowy Shaw is playing drums on this and I'm a little confused why he didn't at least take care of the vocals in the studio as he is a better singer than this guy from Cage, who coated their first EP in a ton of cheese. Singing lyrics like 'we drink the angels blood" this should sound dark not like frilly pirate shirt wearing power-metal. The bottom line is obviously this guy isn't King Diamond, nor do I expect them to find some one to rival King Diamond, I just want something better than what this guy does. The problem with wasting time to put out mediocre metal is this is prolonging the Mercyful Fate re-union that may or may not come after King releases his next album. They do capture an ounce of the theatrical flare with a shade of darkness on "Son of Satan" , but most of this is lost when they launch back into to the more power metal like gallops. To Sean Peck's credit he hits some very Ripper Owens like notes.

There is a little more thrashing attack to "the Wolf Feeds at Night". Lyrically this is really rough. The riffs on this album are an improvement from the EP. When their singer goes into a more Ozzy like tone, he sounds much better. Once again the guitar solos are the most ripping aspect of their music. Shaw's drumming is good, the mix is a little weird his kick sound could have been given more love. "Pentagram and the Cross" is a less impressive display of their legendary status, as it's like pumped up hard rock. The title track is more metallic. The drumming fills the chorus perfectly and it sounds like the bass player is pretty on point when he emerges from the edge of the mix. Though when everything drops out later on in the album so his tone lays bare, it's kinda shitty, but it might be more of an issue in how it was eq'ed.  I guess this answers the question of what would Candlemass sound like if Ripper Owens started singing for them is answered here. Peck goes after some of the higher notes in his register with a strained grit that reminds me a little more of  Matt Barlow.

There is a darker guitar tone to the opening of "Servants of Dagon". The mood is not maintained for long and begins to fall apart at the chorus. They at least get more aggressive on "Escape From Hell". Lyrically it's another less thoughtful moment as it deals with drag racing against the devil. The main riff reminds me of "Painkiller". The album ends with "the Baroness". Five minutes into this one they try to pull off a melodic section similar to "Melissa" and it goes horribly wrong. This is however better than the ep, but can't come close to even touching King Diamond's least inspired solo work,so I'll give it a 7.5.

Denner / Shermann : " Satans Tomb"

Looks like we are going to be waiting a while longer for that Mercyful Fate reunion, King parades around the world now playing "Abigail" in its entirety, so Hank Shermann and Michael Denner have gotten together for this ep. The first song kicks in pretty heavy, for power metal at least. Cage vocalist Sean Peck is no King Diamond and in fact the weakest link of this out as they have Snowy Shaw , who once played with Fate so  we have three ex-members of Mercyful Fate rocking the crypts here. The title track opens the album and I think Shaw should have handled the vocals because Peck's vibrato is cheesy as hell, sometimes he sounds like Messiah Marcolin and at other Warrel Dane . The instrumentation is on point, the guitar playing burning with hell fire and Shaw's drumming has never sounded better. It's the multi-tracked vocals that annoy me. I love metal yodels. Some of my favorite singers are King Diamond, Bruce Dickinson, Geoff Tate, Dio, Halford, Gillan and even Matt Barlow. But all of those singers have more colors to their voice, and Peck does if we are counting straws he just sounds like all the cliches that people laugh at when they think of 80s metal.

"New Gods" takes its time before it is built up into and when it lands the chug is well complimented by the bass and drums. I hope this is not Peck's best King Diamond impersonation, though  I know it is and I also can't help but thinking if these guys go on tour they are going to cover Fate songs that this guys is going to butcher. He doesn't have the lower range grow so they pitch shift his voice and add effects to create that kind of sound. While great guitarists  it is once again evident that without King Diamond in the house their writing suffers. There is a riff in this song that sounds like it was lifted from 'Painkiller". The line " the new gods have returned again" is the best that comes from Pecks lips so far. If I was still 13 I think I would dig his voice more.

The album closes with "Seven Skulls" which has one of the albums best riffs. They also speed up into more of a thrash tempo once you get into the verses. There is no denying these guitarists work well together , but once you have worked with King Diamond the bar is raised way too high they should have gotten Ripper Owens. The riffage is flexed more tautly on three minutes in.  The lower effected vocals and the syncopation in some places are paying homage to King Diamond, it's just the execution is not always there. I find myself wondering how could they have been in a band with King Diamond and think this is alright for Peck to do? Anyway you have two legendary metal guitarists and a damn fine drummer bringing their close to a game, so musically it's higher than the 8 I will give it , but it depends on your threshold for caterwauling with no clear focus as to how this sits with you.