### Zandelle: Flames of rage

#### 29/07/09 || Smalley

One can sense an entertaining power metal group lurking within Zandelle somewhere (along with a better band name as well), struggling, fighting to escape, and with work, I know this band can let it out. Unfortunately, a number of shortcomings on “Flames of rage” keep that inner good band from seeing the light of day; no doubt, the music Zandelle made here is energetic enough, and one can definitely sense a desire from them to keep their listeners’ interest, so that fact alone wins them a few extra points in my book.

But unfortunately, since we’re talking about a power metal band, the vocals naturally play a big role, and George Tsalikis just has too plain a voice, with not enough power, to really suit this music. His weak vocalwork is the most prominent flaw (along with backup vox that’s just silly, distracting shouting), but there are other flaws to be heard as well, such as a drummer who often sounds like he’s playing spoons(!) instead of a kit. I don’t know what the hell he’s doing to make that sound (hell, he could actually just be playing spoons), but however he makes it, it’s annoying. The songwriting also lacks sufficient focus here, with songs that have weak senses of direction overall, songs that mostly just hang there, failing to be entertaining. This means that all the energy the members pour into their individual performances is wasted, since, despite there being plenty going in, what’s going on just isn’t very interesting.

Besides the aforementioned singer/drummer problems, the rest of the instruments sound fine; the keyboard work is quite nice (probably the best thing here, though I feel it was underused), the bass sounds good, the rhythm guitar sounds fine, the lead work is okay power metal noodling, and, despite the aforementioned spoons thing, the drummer’s energy level does fit the music. But like I said, the basic songwriting is just too unremarkable, with too weak a vocalist and only one truly good track (“Dark nemesis”) among too many forgettable ones, for me to endorse “Flames”; there’s just too much good metal out there waiting for one to bother with this. By improving their sound problems and working on making some more interesting songwriting, I know Zandelle could be an entertaining power metal group, and I do know that they tried here (almost makes me want to bump my score up half a point), but as things are, “Flames of rage” is just a… shrug

- Information
- Released: 2009
- Label: Pure Steel
- Website: www.zandelle.net
- Zandelle
- George Tsalikis: vocals
- Rudy Albert: guitar, bass
- Paul Duthil: guitar
- Andrew Cross: bass
- Joe Cardillo: drums

- Tracklist
- 01. Killing Gaze
- 02. Broken Trust
- 03. Flames of Rage
- 04. Thermopylae
- 05. Dark Nemesis
- 06. Face of War
- 07. Inner Strength
- 08. Defiance
- 09. Eradicated Existence