ASTRAL DOORS
ASTRAL DOORS– “The End of it All”
By Colonel Angus
I miss the days when you would go to a local independent record store and flip through the bins to find your next favorite band. It does warm my heart that I am starting to see these types of places popping up here and there. ASTRAL DOORS was a band that I remember hearing played in one of those record emporiums back in 2005 and it made my ears perk up. They were very much in DIO style of metal and I was always into that type of music. It had the epic parts along with a good dose of that early heavy metal sound. No frills, just straight up metal with soaring vocals and melodic guitars riffing and solos. The record that started me on my ASTRAL DOORS journey was ‘Evil is Forever”.
Sadly, my love affair with the band was more like a fling with me losing interest after the “Requiem of Time” record. Not that the music was bad, it was just more of the same and quite frankly, that particular disk I felt was too long. I’m not one of those guys that requires bands to give me 60 minutes of music on each album. Scale it back and give me 40 minutes of solid material and I am happy. To be honest, I have listened to all of their material but the “End of it All” is the first one in a long, long time that I am “really” focusing on and giving it a proper sit down.
Right off the bat, I can tell you that ASTRAL DOORS is giving you more of their brand of metal BUT I feel that the song writing and performances lift this album up from being just another ASTRAL DOORS release. Things start off with a catchy power metal tune called “Temple of Lies”. I’m normally not much of a power metal fan but when it is done right, then I quite like it and “Temple of Lies” falls into that category. They slow things down for “Iron Dome” that is really catchy and just great straight ahead traditional metal. This is the type of material that ASTRAL DOORS fans should be familiar with but there is just something about it that elevates beyond some of their previous material.
Fist pumping is on the menu with “Vikings Rise” with its plodding tempo and lyrical subject matter. There are parts of the song that would be perfect for a bunch of metalheads sitting in a bar swinging their beers while singing the lyrics. To add dramatic effect, there are some great Viking sound effects at the beginning and end of the track. The catchy material continues with “Heaven’s Gate” and “Masters of the Sky” staying in the ASTRAL DOORS lane. Both don’t veer from their core sound but the band’s ability to write catchy (and more importantly memorable) songs shows that they still have plenty to material left in them.
The title track is as epic as you would expect. It starts off very slow with some mellow strumming guitars but quickly transform into a great galloping rocker. This is the type of track that made me fall in love with the band in the first place. The DIO-ish stylings come back in full force on “Father Evil” with its plodding verses and bombastic vocal delivery during the choruses. I find myself continually going back to this tune and as I write this review, this is my favorite off “The End of it All”. Stellar track thatdeserves all your attention.
As the album progresses, we get another piece that has an epic feel. “When the Clock Strikes Midnight” manages to fit a good amount of musical drama into a song that is only 4 and half minutes long. The keyboard’s middle-eastern flair adds another dimension to this song and record as a whole. The disk ends with “A Night in Berlin” and “A Game of Terror” with the former containing a cool strutting tempo while the latter is a bit more power metal. The flow of the whole album flows really well and while ASTRAL DOORS stays in their lane for the whole affair, they manage to incorporate different elements and tempos to give the listener a variety all within 50 minutes.
For those of you who have followed the band, the core has stayed intact throughout the whole catalogue. Nils Patrik Johansson (vocals), Joachim Nordlund (guitars), Jocke Roberg (keyboards), and Johan Lindstedt (drums) are all back to carry on the ASTRAL DOORS flame. Each one of them puts in a powerful performance on “The End of it All” and even though they are 20+ years into this band, they still sound fresh on this new release. Joining them are Mats Gesar (guitars) who has been around for a decade and Ulf Lagerström (bass) who may be the newest member but has also clocked in a good 5 years. Basically, this is the same line-up who churned out 2019’s “Worship or Die”. I’m not quite sure what the band did differently this time around but “The End of it All” is a really strong release and it has gone a long way in rekindling my love affair with ASTRAL DOORS.