Well, well, an album shared by two international singers? What a strange idea!!
Finally not that funny when you know the singers and the instigator of the project: Magnus Karlsson. The latter had already dazzled us with an excellent Starbreaker unanimously acclaimed. So we are reassured on the qualitative potential of this album, because it is indeed an album and not yet another metal opera.
Contrary to appearances, the Battle is not just a showcase for our two celebrities but is full of excellent and very energetic music. M. Karlsson is having a great time and his elegant metal is always a hit. His brilliant solos illuminate very compact compositions and refocus attention on a musical interest sometimes vampirized by the two singers (logical).
Located between melodic metal and classy AOR, The Battle has all the instrumental qualities to seduce any self-respecting metal lover. It's square, it's very dynamic! As for the interpretation, of course, it's brilliant in every way and there's no flaws to report. The album is democratically shared, alternating vocals with two people or solo.
I won't give you the details of the voices of each song, it's much better to discover for yourself the interventions of our brilliant protagonists and believe me, it's not so obvious. Certainly Allen and Lande do not put themselves in danger and it is rather to Markus that we should turn and blame him for taking a minimal risk. A little more audacity in the composition would have allowed the two singers to think outside the box and show a new facet of their art.
So there is no battle, but rather a close collaboration and exemplary complementarity that will probably give ideas to the competition. The Battle will certainly be one of the melodic metal albums of the year.