Valkyrian Music

Access Denied
Touch Of Evil
Due for release/Released: May 2011 (Poland), November 2012 ( worldwide re-release)
Heavy Metal/ Hard Rock
Released via Label: Pitch Black Records

‘Touch of Evil’ is the second album from the Polish classic heavy metal band Access Denied. The album was originally self-released only in Poland back in 2011. After the band signed to Pitch Black Records, the label decided to re-release the album worldwide in November 2012.

So, after the symphonic ‘Intro’ I was half expecting to hear some sort of gothic metal (read old Nightwish-style) vocals. Oddly enough I couldn’t have been more wrong! Instead of the expected symphonic keyboards and operatic vocals, ‘Messenger of Death’ starts off with a scream followed by some guitar riffs. Yes, make no mistake this is definitely heavy metal with some powerful, though not in the slightest bit operatic, vocals. ‘Suicide Mind’ continues along the same path with more catchy guitar riffs plus some solos.

‘Secret Place’ offers a good balance of guitar riffs and solos without losing the emphasis on the vocals making this track one of the most memorable of ones here. Other noteworthy tracks include: ‘Don’t Tell Me’, which features an interesting mix of acoustic guitar and symphonic elements in the intro, and ‘Violence Of Mind’ which has some symphonic metal undertones thanks to the keyboards mixed in with the usual guitar, drums and vocal combo. Then there’s the melodic ballad title track ‘Touch of Evil’, which seems like a very fitting way to end what has been a very enjoyable heavy metal album.

4/5

Iza Raittila

This entry was posted on 28th September 2012 at 12:53 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.