Another very good year for hard rock/heavy metal ends and until its last days the good releases continue. A recent example is the third album from the collaboration of Russel Allen and Jorn Lande, perhaps the best singers of the last decade. Although most of the projects usually don’t fulfill our expectations, in this case, from the first release the results were fantastic, as 2005’s “The Battle” is one of the best albums on melodic metal genre. The continuation with “The Revenge” wasn’t such impressive but this year’s new CD called “The Showdown” has really stuck on my CD player. The speed songs have almost disappeared in contrary to the debut, removing the power metal feeling that existed, but the catchy melodies in every song in combination with the 12 perfect compositions compile a puzzle that can’t dissapoint any fan of today’s melodic metal, a genre that during the last years has displaced the infertile classic power metal, with great bands as Leverage, Masterplan etc.

It’s hard to choose the best songs, but if you push me I will choose the title track that opens the CD, “Judgement Day” that few days ago was released as the first video, the most power metal track on the album “We Will Rise Again” that reminds the bands first release, and finally “The Artist” with its amazing melodies that stick to your mind from the first listen. I will not stand on Allen’s and Lande’s performances as I knew from the beginning that they would be perfect. But I will do it for Magnus Karlsson, the project’s guitarist and composer that once more spreads out his talent, a few months after he brought back Primal Fear with his playing on “Before The Devil Knows You Are Dead”. I am sure that we’ll have to deal with him many times in the future. I also hope the same for the whole project as its 3 releases are included in the last 5 year’s best albums.