• New Music Reviews
• |
• Archives
• |
• News
• |
• Submissions
• |
• About
• |
• 
• |
• 

December 2024

• After Lapse: Pathways
• Illusion Force: Halfana
• Powell-Payne: Voilá

November 2024

• Sunstorm: Restless Fight
• Storace: Crossfire
• Voodoo Circle: Hail To The King
• Lionville: Supernatural
• Starchaser: Into The Great Unkown
• Empires Of Eden: Guardians Of Time
• Lonerider: Down In The Dust
• Seventh Crystal: Entity
• Neal Morse & The Resonance: No Hill For A Climber
• Beardfish: Songs For Beating Hearts
• Impellitteri: War Machine
• Brothers Of Metal: Fimbulvinter

October 2024

• Casandra's Crossing: Garden Of Earthly Delights
• DGM: Endless
• Daytona: Garder la Flamme
• Fate: Reconnect 'N Ignite
• Frost*: Life In The Wires
• Aries Descendant: From The Ashes Of Deceit
• Fans Of The Dark: Video
• Radioactive: Reset
• House Of Lords: Full Tilt Overdrive
• Cleanbreak: We Are The Fire

September 2024

• Sinner's Blood: Dark Horizons
• Serious Black: Rise Of Akhenaton
• Eclipse: Megalomanium II
• SteelCity: Reverence
• Hydra: ReHydrated
• Heartwind: III
• Gabrielle De Val and the Dragonlords: Tiger
• Find Me: Nightbound
• The Nail: The Nail
• Timeless Fairytale: A Story To Tell
• Stryper: When We Were Kings
• Phil Mogg: Moggs Motel
• Pure Reason Revolution: Coming Up To Consciousness
• Jordan Rudess: Permission To Fly

August 2024

• Siege Perilous: Creation's Call EP
• Paralydium: Universe Calls
• Mike Tramp: Songs Of White Lion Vol. II
• Bite The Bullet: Looking For Paradise
• All For Metal: Gods Of Metal (Year Of The Dragon)
• Hammerfall: Avenge The Fallen
• Jim Peterik & World Stage: Roots & Shoots Vol. 2

[ More Music Reviews ]

Dire Peril: Queen of the Galaxy EP

Heavy/Power/Thrash Metal

3.5/5.0

Facebook
Dead Inside Records
Words: Craig Hartranft  Added: 17.09.2014

Created to combine his love for heavy metal and science fiction, hardly an odd combination in metal, guitarist Jason Ashcraft created Dire Peril. His vision was to deliver three sci-fi themed EPs, and built his band around Bay Area guest musicians. Queen of the Galaxy is the second EP in the trilogy.

Dire Peril: best picture I could find.

In one sense, it's a mixed bag of music. Alternatively, it has a common thread of classic American heavy and power metal. My Vengeance Is Everything is basically a combination of power metal with thrash metal, heavy on the latter. The pace is quick, the riffs and drums thrashing about like so much mayhem. Norman Skinner (ex-Imagika) draws upon his throaty vocals to sing, scream and sometimes growl along the way.

Space Invaders, based on the old Atari game, is likely the closest thing to true power metal, siding more with speed and less with thrash than the former. But, we're probably splitting hairs with this comparison Skinner also sounds a bit more melodic. Queen of the Galaxy follows with vocalist Brittney Hayes from Unleash The Archers taking the lead. Against the other two, this is the most melodic and smooth of all the songs, still metal but not as coarse. It's the best song here. Across all the originals there's some mighty fine traditional metal leads from guitarist Jearme Greathouse.

As with their previous EP Astronomical Minds where they did a cover of Blue Oyster Cult's Godzilla, offers a their rendition of Boston's Something About You. It definitely follows the melody and arrangement, especially in the vocals, of the original, only sounding heavy metal desperate. It's not bad, but Skinner's vocal interpretation may give some Boston fans pause.

Dire Peril - Space Invaders (Lyric Video)

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

With the second of three proposed EPs, Queen of the Galaxy, Dire Peril brings some traditional American power, with a strong measure of thrash metal at times.

Alphabetical Index

The Powell Payne project, created in 2022 is the collaboration of Mark "Penfold Powell (ex-drummer of Psycho Kiss) and Adam Payne (former vocalist of Airrace). With guitarist Adam Davies and keyboard player ... [ Read More ]