Ghost Avenue - 'Impact'

Well played and well delivered but well standard.

"Turn left on Zombie Drive, wander into Vampire Villas and then you'll find Werewolf Way. Ghost Avenue is a cul-de-sac". Is this one of those? Yeah, a bit. One with an industrial centre and an outlet village on it.

There are embellishments here, sound effects at the tail of every tune, but they don't make up for some of the rather hackneyed sounds preceding them. These Norwegians, on their third album, do the business well enough and Kim Izzy Sandvik has a whisky warble, but sometimes these are a little identikit.



So, we get the robust, prickly backline of lots of Euro Metal, with real trier of solos from Thomas Eljarbø and André Berger, but which ultimately go nowhere. Sometimes they hit a bit of pay dirt; I sang along to the scudding, NWOBHM tough 'The Prison' and the guitars on 'Time Traveller' keeps jabbing you in the ribs before grabbing you for an impromptu dance off. These songs tend to conform to what we expect and that is disappointing; they could have been so much more than simply settling for comfort.

Well played and well delivered but well standard. This avenue might have good routes to school and the local Aldi, but you wouldn't want to settle.

Steve Swift