POWER GAMES (E)

Back in 1985 Lars Eric Mattsson was first discovered by Mike Varney from Guitar Player Magazine and Shrapnel Records. Now he's a well-known name in the metal scene. His distinctive guitar sound is very recognizable. His frequent use of the wah-wah pedal and his somewhat distorted sound clearly seperates him from all the clones of Yngwie Malmsteen. On Power Games, successor to Another Dimension (2000), he also emphasizes again his abilities as a composer and keyboardist. Although the guitar naturally is the more dominant solo instrument, all keyboard parts are of a high quality, the solos could have been played by a professional keyboardist and the orchestrations are really to my taste. Mattsson plays also all bass guitars and he does again a very good job by doing so. The drums are played by Eddie Sledgehammer - what's in a name? - and for the vocal duties Mattsson had the brilliant idea to hire Lance King (Balance Of Power, Empire). I must admit that I'm not familiar with King's accomplishments with either Balance Of Power or Empire, but I greatly appreciate his abilities as shown on this album. His voice, in my opinion resembling the voice of James LaBrie (Dream Theater) in top form, is an acquisition, otherwise this album would have been in danger since it would have an instrumental one and would have fallen prey to boredom. But now, with this extra dimension Power Games reaches the top in progressive metal. Still, it remains extremely difficult to come up with catchy melodies which appear to be original. To my taste Mattsson has succeeded for a great deal in achieving this, which is a compliment. Naturally, when you play melodic metal with classical influences, it's inevitable to have moments of recognition. As I said, James LaBrie's Mulmuzzler comes to mind, but some parts also remind me of Rainbow, for instance the seventeen-minute instrumental Guitar Concerto and some melody lines of Malmsteen. It's obvious with metal albums by guitarists that there's a lot of 'showing of' and a lot of rapid solos. Still the vocal parts, the keyboard solos and the many less rapid but beautifully played melodies, make this album well-worth considering buying because it surely quite differs from Joe Satriani, Alex Massi or Yngwie Malmsteen, just to name a few. It's a unique combination of fine craftsmanship in both the use of the instruments and the vocals. All lyrics are written by Mattsson as well, but they don't have a particular message.