General Information

Original Author: The Uncreator

Artist: Nuclear Blast Allstars

Album: Nuclear Blast Allstars

Genre: Heavy Metal/ Thrash/ Symphonic/ Power/ Speed

Tracklist

1. Dirty Wings
2. Terrified
3. Ruling The World
4. Death Is Alive
5. Bloodsucker
6. Slaves To The Desert
7. A Perfect Day
8. Eternally
9. Inner Sanctuary
10. In The Picture

Featured Musicians

Guitars:
Victor Smolski

Bass:
Victor Smolski
Jan Michael Keller

Drums:
Andre Hilgers
Volker Schultz

Vocals:
Tobias Sammet
Peter "Peavy" Wagner
Toni Kakko
Mats Leven
Marcel "Schmier" Schirmer
Hansi Kursch
Andi Deris
Oddleif Stensland
Marco Hietala
Tarja Turunen

Sound

10 Just great, Victor Smolski and Peter Wagner, The two songwriters who put this together, create and instense atmospher of classic heavy metal, thrash, speed, power and symphonic metal mixtures.

Guitars

10 Out of the probabaly 500+ bands on nuclear blast, Victor Smolski is defiently one of the best guitarists. He plays some absoultey brutal riffs throughout this album, one of my favorite being in the song "Bloodsucker", it has such an old school thrash sound it takes me back to Testament, Exodus, and early Slayer days in the Late mid 80's. He also pulls out some even older school stuff remiscent of Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest. With the Old school stuff aside, there is a modern sound that covers this album, thick, heavy guitars, and then theres the solo's. Well this is where Victor blows me away, he plays some just blistering leads with one of the smoothest ones ever. From the fast face melter of "Dirty Wings" to the more majestic solo of "In The Picture", he covers his bases with amaizng versatiltiy.

Bass

10 Turns out Victor can also shred the bass as well. The bass on this album is very powerful, and there are times when Victor (on the bass) plays some really cool slap stlye stuff mixed with some fast Neo-classical sounding speed licks. Jan-Michael Keller also does some bass work on here, and he does it perfectly, hes got tight grooves and great feeling in his playing, The bass overall is just superb.

Drums

10 Like the old school thrash style drummin'? this to me is exactly how Andre Hilgers sounds on this album, relentless and brutal riffs with some super fast double bass and some serious groove. The drums have a heavy sound that remind of Derrick Roddy (Ex-Nile), Volker Schmultz does this as well, incredibly heavy drums with a groove oriented sense of speed, he will pound your soul to dust with his drumwork. Prepared to be headbaning when you hear these drums.

Vocals

10 Jesus...did you see that list of vocalists? good god...from Blind Guardian, Helloween, Nightwish, Tarot, Destruction, Rage, Edguy, Sonata Arctica, i mean they got all the best singers you could ask for. Since there isnt a single vocalist to focus on, all i can say really is that they all do there job PERFECT. Every song feels like a new adventure when you hear this singer kick in, plus if you havent listened to some of the bands the singer is from, this is a little insight into there vocalists ability.

Lyrics

9 Great, just great, Peter Wagner writes all the lyrics for this album, and he has a way with words like no others, from the soft lyrics of "In The Picture" that flow smoothly over the music, to the agressive in your face I WILL HURT you style of "Bloodsucker" and "Death is Alive" he has it all.

From "Dirty Wings"

Through the fires of the night
From the ashes, out of sight
Wide awake, so I will ride
On dirty wings....

Through the darkness of the night
From the ashes to the light
Wide awake, now I will ride
On Dirty Wings...

From "Ruling The World"

There is a nation in the wester world
They've got the power to control,
All the resources to take what they need
And they are willing to take all

Time will show where they'll go
Ruling the world by the sword
Can't they tell, they've made hell
Ruling the world by the sword

From "In The Picture"

You'll never see me running away
I was framed to be
In The picture...

Can't belive my eyes
Images blurred
are coming alive

From where did you come
What's your mission?

Overall Impression

10 Fantastic album one of the best ive bought this year, maybe even the best. Its Heavy, Symphonic, Fast, and Powerful, An album celebrating 20 years of the greatest metal label in the world...NUCLEAR BLAST

Links

"In The Picture" / Tarja Turunen (Nightwish)

"Inner Sanctuary" / Marco Hietala (Tarot, Nightwish)

Brief Overview Of 2nd CD: It's a compilation of Nuclear Blast bands songs that are either unreleased or hard to get (rare), it has many bands i love on it, in fact i love all of them

Featured Bands

1. Hammerfall - Hearts On Fire
2. Helloween - The Madness Of The Crowds
3. Gotthard - El Traidor (Spanish Version)
4. After Forever - Sweet Enclosure
5. Ride The Sky - New Protection
6. Thunderstone - Forever More
7. Threshold - Slipstream
8. Amorphis - The Smoke
9. Candlemass - Devil Seed
10. Sirenia - The Other Side