After the release of “Metal Reservation“, SCANNER, despite the line-up changes wasted no time and begun immidiately working on their next album. And only after a year, boom! “Ball of the Damned” is out. This one is a deeper dwelling into the power/prog area since it
continues where “Mental reservation” left.
It kicks off with one of the absolute classic metal songs of the German 90s “Pupper on a String” a power metal mayhem with a distinctive chorus, and let me say this: songs like this are the true reason I listen to this music: its both catchy and sophisticated with a dramatic vibe and has guest vocals from the man himself Ralf Scheepers.
However, the album is much more than this: there are numerous power metal highlights, some of them even flirt with obscurity like “Tollshocked“, some of them with more melodic eurometal forms like “Frozen under the Sun” and other with theatrical/epic themes like the magnifiscent title track. As always guitar work is phenomenal, and the bands performance is stunning.
As I said in the previous reviews, these albums are must-have whether on vinyl or CD or cassette or grammophone record or whatever. These are true masterpieces of power metal, a solemn statement of SCANNER‘s value. Needless to say that the band is still around
despite the struggles, their last album was great and there will be a new release in early 2024. Frankly, I can’t wait to travel again across the galaxy.
Check the discussion about the album in our forum pages.
