Metal Allegiance - Volume II: Power Drunk Majesty

The super group formula is a concept that has been done what feels like a million times in recent times, with side projects, collaborations, and friendly experimentations popping up here and there at a consistent pace. Most of these are fairly harmless, a chance for the people involved to express themselves a little bit more outside of their main bands, but there are also those that feels like instant cash grabs, a way to push the fan's nostalgia buttons. Metal Allegiance might not be a pure cash grab, but it is easy to see it as one, knowing how they have been promoted by Nuclear Blast, so even if this group feels like a friendly get together, there is still something bugging me about it all.

So the talent pool in Metal Allegiance is certainly no laughing matter. The group consists of Alex Skolnick (Testament), David Ellefson (Megadeth), and Mike Portnoy (ex-Dream Theater), but as far as the vocals go, the trio hires vocalists from all around the metal globe to do the job. In this installment, we have Johan Hegg (Amon Amarth), John Bush (ex-Anthrax), Bobby "Blitz" Ellsworth (Overkill), Mark Tornillo (Accept), Floor Jansen (Nightwish), Max Cavalera (ex-Sepultura, Soulfly), Troy Sanders (Mastodon), Trevor Strnad (The Black Dahlia Murder), and Mark Osegueda (Death Angel). Wow, that is quite a cast, especially when you also have a little guitar work from Joe Satriani, Nita Strauss (Alice Cooper), and Andreas Kisser (Sepultura).

You see though, the talent pool was not exactly poor last time around either, but the song writing was, making the band look like a glorified cover band. That is something Mike, David, and Alex has worked on, because "Volume II..." sounds a lot more cohesive, like it has a clear cut identity to build upon. Sure, the songs get tweaked a little bit to fit the vocalist, but it never feels like a poor b-side track that the vocalist just scooped up from the bottom of the drawer, except for two songs, the slower Overkill rip off "Mother of Sin", and the heavily "Roots" inspired "Voodoo of The Godsend".

There is otherwise a good amount of quality tracks in this record, which certainly surprised me. Sure, nothing in here will make you lose your breath over its suffocating excellence, but there is some golden moments in here, like the beautiful solo in the otherwise dark and heavy "King With A Paper Crown", or Portnoy's nifty drum work in "Terminal Illusion". However, there are as many strange decisions as well, like not giving the amazing Floor Jansen more room to work on in the second part of the title track. The sound consistency is there, but the same cannot be said in terms of quality.

I still see Metal Allegiance as a deluxe version of a cover band, a chance for a bunch of buddies to drink and play music (the drinking part is not confirmed). "Volume II..." is certainly a serviceable album that has a playful attitude, but it still has a major problem, that there is no real reason for it to exist. Mike, Alex, and David takes a step towards establishing this project into a real band, but I still would rather hear them in their respective main bands (which for Mike must be Sons of Apollo? The Winery Dogs?). They got power, and they might be drunk, but a majesty this band ain't.

Songs worthy of recognition: Terminal Illusion, The Accuser, King With A Paper Crown

Rating: 6,5/10 Liars & Thieves

metalallegiance.com/
twitter.com/metalallegiance