Album review: SASCHA PAETH’S MASTERS OF CEREMONY – Signs of Wings

Frontiers Music [Release date 13.09.19]

UK audiences may not be too familiar with German-born Sascha Paeth but the multi-instrumentalist and producer has had a hand in many, many dozens of albums for an extensive roster of bands over the past three decades. These include the likes of Avantasia, Kamelot, Rhapsody and Epica.

Now Paeth has put together his own band: “Finally, I am putting my energy into a metal project of my own. It is the sum of my experiences over the years and a bit of a revival of what I was doing in the past.”

The musicians that he’s recruited are Felix Bohnke (Avantasia) on drums, André Neygenfind (Avantasia) on bass, Corvin Bahn on keyboards and American singer Adrienne Cowan. Style-wise it explores a variety of different textures from the melodic to the more straight-ahead metal.

Cowan’s powerful range certainly suits the mix of styles on the album from the full-frontal assault of ‘The Time Has Come’ to the symphonic Blackmore-esque ‘Weight of the World’ to the delicate piano-driven ballad ‘The Path’. All of the album’s eleven tracks are either written by Paeth alone or co-written with lead singer, Cowan, and demonstrate a good ear for creating catchy but powerful songs.

Production-wise it’s as polished as anything you’d expect from the Frontiers stable and Paeth and the record label seem perfectly suited to one another.

Powerful, melodic and inventive Signs of Wings is a piece of well-crafted European metal that’s worth seeking out. ***1/2

Review by Darren Johnson

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