Powerworld – Human Parasite
Release Date: November 9, 2010
Highlights: Cleansed By Fire, Caught In Your Web, Tame Your Demons, King For A Day
There must be something in water and/or air in Germany that turns out some of the most classic prog metal ever. The home to such legendary bands as Accept and Helloween, Germany knows how to send us the very best and Powerworld is another fantastic import for us here in the states. Powerworld’s latest album “Human Parasite” is a fantastic collection of melodic guitar playing, a rhythm section that is punchy and tight and harmony vocals that will give you goosebumps. While Powerworld boasts the ability to completely be a progressive band, at times they contain themselves which allows the listener to focus on the substance of the song which is a great thing. Way too often bands over play with their abilities and make it hard to pay attention to what the actual song is trying to convey. Powerworld has mastered the art of not only being exceptional players but being great songwriters that can deliver well written substantial songs.
“Human Parasite” really shows Powerworlds ability to cover a lot of ground. At times it’s trashy, at times it’s proggy and nearly always there’s a bit of pop sensibility to the songs. I don’t mean pop as in pop radio but pop as in the songs are insanely catchy and the hooks are just infectious. “Cleansed By Fire” opens the album sounding reminiscent of a Helloween thrasher with that has an infectiously catchy hook and chorus and also showcases the rhythm section of drummer Achim Keller and bassist Ilker Ersin. “Caught In Your Web” is very subtle yet complexly melodic song that has some amazing vocal work from singer Andrew McDermott along with some fantastic harmony vocals. “Tame Your Demons” is old school metal all the way with some impressive tempo and structural changes that really kept me interested and engaged wondering. The album closes with “King For Day” which has Powerworld again drawing from the book of Helloween, the guitar work of Barish Kedic is melodically beautiful yet so intricate and mind blowing opening the doors to exit as big as they came in. I also love the fact that Nils Neumann’s keyboards are present but not so much that it is annoying. Keyboards in prog metal can sometime be over done yet Newmann’s playing is subtle yet very present and important to the sound.
Human Parasite is an album that all fans of classic metal will find easy to access. Unlike fellow German prog metalers Blind Guardian who I feel appeals to a more modern audience, Powerworld as a much broader appeal that not only is accessible to the modern crowd but classic sounding enough to appeal to the old schoolers like myself. Powerworld’s “Human Parasite” is destined to be an unsung classic here in the states that I would like to consider as one of the this years best kept secrets. Listen to this album and share the secret with as many as you can. It’s a secret worth sharing.
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