Axel Rudi Pell - Knights' Call

That Axel Rudy Pell is a true virtuoso we are all aware. Also that he is capable of reinventing himself each album. That is exactly what he and his resourceful band do with this new effort “Knights’ Call,“ which begins with a beautiful violin piece called “The Medieval Overture,” to jump suddenly to a hard and tough melodic power metal that Mr. Pell really knows how to master. In “The Wild And The Young” Mr. Pell shows all the tricks he’s got under his sleeves using techniques that are not so common these days, but Ace Frehley, for instance, was a master in.

“Knights’ Call,” his seventeenth effort in his almost thirty-year career, has a strong eightish scent. It bounces through the so called melodic power metal to strong hard rock tunes, as in “Long Live Rock,” a Mr. Pell ode to the style we all love and fight for. I guess one of the multiple reasons Mr. Pell chose “Knights’ Call” to christen this effort is because he wants to show that he is still strong as steel. So is his music. “Knights’ Call” is a collection of beautiful melodic guitar solos. Mr. Pell does them as no one else. He is not fast as the speed of light, but he does know where to put any guitar note in a song. It is almost a lost art these days.

“Knights’ Call” would not be complete if it did not have a balad, as Mr. Pell is the real deal of baladeers. “The Crusaders Of Doom” and “Beyond The Light” are delicious power balads where Mr. Pell’s band can show everything he’s got and vocalist Johnny Gioeli can show all the warmth of his tender voice. In the guitar solo in “The Crusaders Of Doom” Mr. Pell seems to be having a chat with us all as he slowly goes down his guitar neck. Yeah, the guy is awesome. He does not shread, he does not go up and down scales, but he sounds awesome. He shows it all in “Truth And Lies,” an instrumental piece with a nice theme where the band goes bright too. A bit seventish, but still effective, that is for sure.

And there goes “Knights’ Call” with no surprises, no songs to be a hit, only the purest soul of a musician compromised only with his music which will come to our hands on March 23rd via SPV / Steamhammer.

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