After THE CROWN had disintegrated last year, the different members started to re-surface in different bands by now, at first Johan Lindstrand in ONE MAN ARMY AND THE UNDEAD QUARTET, Marcus Svensson has ENGEL and the second guitarist Marko Tervonen now has returned with ANGEL BLAKE. Compared to the other bands ANGEL BLAKE’s situation is a bit different, because Marko has not only written everything on his own, no, with the exception of the vocals he also has played all the instruments himself, including the drums (no computer!), which sound damn tight! For the vocals he wanted to move away from the Death and Death/Thrash of THE CROWN and bring in melody, for which he hired former B-THONG and TRANSPORT LEAGUE fronter Tony Jelencovich.

As far as the style is concerned, Marko cannot be nailed to a certain direction, but he covers several influences, some Thrash, some Gothic, a bit of DANZIG, some regular Metal, but despite this pretty wide variety the album does not sound pieced together. After the great intro “The Force” (yes, for a change one of these is really interesting!) “Retaliate” sets out with crunchy Thrash riffing, which stands closest to THE CROWN, but still goes into a different direction, less focused on hate, but rather towards the contrast between the riffing and the melodic vocals. The light AMORPHIS touch of “Lycanthrope” comes a little surprising, but very nicely fits into the overall context.

Jelencovich’s Danzig-influenced voice lends the songs its very own colouring, as for example in my personal favourite “Thousand Storms“, where powerful riffing meets very melodic vocals and the melody line makes the track something truly different. The ROLLING STONES cover “Paint It Black” does not fully reach the ingenious version of VICIOUS RUMORS several years back, but still is convincing and at the very end ANGEL BLAKE closes off the album almost Doom-like with “…’Til The End“, which once more showcases the immense spectrum of this album.

ANGEL BLAKE’s debut is very variable, often with a melancholic undertone, which gives everything a certain originality and after a slow start (at first I thought the album to be a bit boring, but that quickly changed!) unfolds its very own charm. Additionally Marko has completed the band by now, among others with former THE CROWN drummer Janne Saarenpää, so that we should be able to expect quite a bit of them in the future, very strong album! (Online May 7, 2006)