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Stargazery: Eye on the Sky

Melodic Hard Rock/Heavy Metal

4.0/5.0

Pure Legend Records (Pure Steel Records)
Website MySpace
by Craig Hartranft,  02.28.2011

Finland's Stargazery's debut album, Eye on the Sky, is the first album to be released on Pure Steel's new division/label Pure Legend Records. Putting your best foot forward in a new venture can be challenging, but Pure Legend has a winner with Stargazery. Eye on the Sky is solid melodic metal, possibly more melodic hard rock than heavy metal.

Imagine this audio image: Eighties Rainbow, without Ronnie James, and then peppered with both some Whitesnake, less bluesy but just as bombastic, and metal heaviness from Scandinavian friends Astral Doors. Whether that's definitive or not, Stargazery works the angles of melodic hard rock and metal with aplomb. The friendliness of melody merged with the power of heaviness marks songs such as Dying, the opener, Judah (the Lion), and Jester of Kings, the shortest song here. Other short numbers like How Many Miles and I Am the Night show Stargazery's ability to be efficient: wasting little time and no notes, they deliver forceful but catchy melodic metal.

With roots in a classic era, the metal/hard rock ballad develops in the slightly better than average Everytime I Dream of You. Additionally, in a nod to their roots, Stargazery covers Black Sabbath's Headless Cross, from the Tony Martin era, with predictable success.

Some may suggest predictability to Stargazery's debut Eye on the Sky and they're likely right. But in the age where metal is best enveloped in the brutality and harshness of hardcore, Stargazery's remembers that metal can be both heavy and melodic and, therefore, massively accessible and entertaining (without beating the shit out of you). Geez, with those comments, I just sentenced them to death in America, and every where mainstream metal exists. Otherwise, Eye on the Sky is a fine melodic metal debut, for fans who still love it. Recommended.

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

Some may suggest predictability to Stargazery's debut Eye on the Sky and they're likely right. Still, Eye on the Sky is a fine melodic metal debut, for fans who still love it. Recommended.

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