So, Australian PEGAZUS also have reached a live album. Nice comic artwork and a nicely rough live sound, can’t complain about that. The whole thing sounds as if the gig was recorded in a very small club, at least as far as the crowd reactions are concerned, apparently all 30 local fans of the band came together this evening. And the band wasn’t cheap and shot out a good best of program.

I’ve always said (at least since Nuclear Blast Records released "Wings Of Destiny") that the combo is heavily overrated and can’t compete with comparable colleagues of the 80s from Germany. In direct comparison with bands such as GRAVESTONE, STRANGER, VETO or NOISEHUNTER, which had received horrible reviews back then, the Koala Metallers fall off. And the live album won’t change anything, for that the music just sounds too harmless.

The mix of IRON MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST and ACCEPT is not really bad, but you can’t really talk about “hit the twelve with full force” either. Interestingly enough singer Rob Thompson mostly sounds like Michael Voss (MAD MAX). Well, a nice disc for in between, like during driving your car or doing the dishes, but that’s about it. As bonus there’s also a second disc, which contains unreleased demo songs. It’s alright. (Online January 8, 2006)