Before re-joining the band he was originally famous for, singer Matt Barlow chose to make his highly-anticipated return to the metal world with Denmark’s Pyramaze. His one and only studio venture with Pyramaze before return to Iced Earth, Barlow replaces former singer/founder Lance King. Though not an entirely unorthodox choice for Barlow’s return, the sound of Pyramaze’s previous records were definitely in a style more melodic and European than anything he had done with Iced Earth, causing many to wonder what the synthesis of styles would yield. It can be safely said that the experiment was largely a positive one.

The combination of Pyramaze’s original members and Matt Barlow is somewhat of a symbiotic, if conforming-to-styles, relationship. On the one hand, Barlow brings to the band his talented and wide-ranged pipes, adding much more variety and emotion to the all-too archetypical vocal stylings of former singer King. However, while Barlow raises the bar for quality vocals, the band at the same time has written songs more in line with what fans of Iced Earth might expect, or at least more towards what the band perceives to be Barlow’s predominant vocal range. By this I mean that the songs are much more riff-oriented, sounding more like something from an American power metal band or one of the more aggressive European bands like Tad Morose. By no means is this a bad thing, as I find the generic European melodic power metal bands to be rather boring, as per Pyramaze’s previous work. However, the band looses a some points on creativity by aping Jon Schaffer’s guitar style in more than a few sections of their songs, for better or for worse. Whether this is the band’s attempt to cash in on recruiting Barlow and/or appeal to a wider audience (read: American) is anyone’s guess…

In many ways, Immortal is greater than both Pyramaze’s previous works and Iced Earth’s most recent offerings. In fact, it could be said that Immortal is the missing Iced Earth record, being both in the vein of said band’s better-known works and of a higher caliber than the most recent two or three records that band has put out (including Barlow’s return recording). This is no small accomplishment, making Immortal a success despite a few of its shortcomings and sometimes uninventive songs, and is a consistent, emotive, and hooky power metal offering that does its best to avoid the pitfalls associated with the genre.