NL ->

trax:
1. Changeling
2. Eyes Of The Dead
3. The Fiddler
4. Watcher In The Deep
5. Your Time Has Come
6. Beauty Is The Beast
7. Underworld
8. Magie Elements
9. Shine On
10. Ace Of Spades

Label: Black Lodge
Playing time: 43:05

Drums, bass guitars, rhythm guitars and vocals were recorded at Studio Underground in May 2005, engineered & produced by Pelle Saether. Lead guitars, acoustic guitars, keyboards & additional vocals were recorded at Studio Fl&#229;klypa in June & July 2005, engineered & produced by Fredrik Groth. Mixed at Studio Fl&#229;klypa in July 2005 by Fredrik Groth. Mastered by Peter In de Betou at Tailor Maid Productions.

THE STORYTELLER is one of Power Metal’s most underrated bands. If life were fair, the band would be every bit as well known as NOCTURNAL RITES and FALCONER, if not as big as HAMMERFALL and BLIND GUARDIAN.

The first two albums, "The Storyteller" and "Crossroad", were both strong romps through fantasy-inspired worlds, but with a darker tone and edge than most in the genre. The third and most epic album, "Tales Of A Holy Quest", delved into even dark areas, as a concept album about the Salem Witch Trials. So where would the band go from here?

On "Underworld", THE STORYTELLER have toned down the epic-ness (just a bit) and beefed up the heaviness, for its ballsiest record yet. There’s more crunch to the guitars and more grit to the vocals. Vocalist L-G Persson is as powerful as ever and still reminds me of Messiah Marcolin (CANDLEMASS, MEMENTO MORI), it’s just that he sounds a bit more angry this time around.

According to the liner notes, the lyrics on "Underworld" deal with stories and myths that the band members had heard their whole lives. And judging from the content, someone was trying to scare these guys when they were children. These are some pretty sinister tales. Just check out "Eyes Of The Dead", "The Fiddler" and "Beauty Is The Beast". The album ends with a cover of the MOTORHEAD classic "Ace Of Spades", which is a nice bonus.

"Underworld" doesn’t quite reach "Tales Of A Holy Quest", but it’s still a very good album in its own right. While not mandatory, Power Metal fans can’t go wrong with this, or any of THE STORYTELLER’s other releases.

EAC extraction logfile from 2. March 2006, 15:16 for CD Storyteller / Anderworld Used drive : SONY DVD RW DW-Q28A Adapter: 1 ID: 0 Read mode : Secure with NO C2, accurate stream, disable cache Read offset correction : 12 Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No Used output format : Internal WAV Routines 44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo Other options : Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000 Range status and errors Selected range Filename H:\Downloads\New Folder\eMule\Incoming\eMulePlus-1m.Binary\Incoming\CDImage.wav Peak level 99.9 % Range quality 100.0 % CRC 96C48421 Copy OK No errors occured End of status report