Helion Prime is every metal nerd’s dream: their name is taken from a planet from The Chronicles of Riddick, they have a mascot who’s a Dinosaur in a space armor, and they play sci-fi themed power metal. Too sugary for you? Well, as much as the diabetic headbanger can suffer the consequences of the band’s style, they do sound great.
After the well-received self-titled album and a change in the lineup with the departure of the awesome Kayla Dixon (vocals, Witch Mountain), the California-natives and their creepy mascot Saibot are back with ‘Terror of the Cybernetic Space Monster’, a somewhat anticipated sophomore record. Newcomer Sozos Michael makes his debut on the mic, and although it seems like a significant change to swap female to male vocals, the overall performance is actually not that different, thanks in part to Michael’s frequent high pitched howls.
The 9-track, almost 60-minute record feels overwhelming at first, especially if looking at the massive 17-minute final track, but the fun story and the smart use of spacing similar songs makes the album listenable in one sit without making you want to grab that insulin shot or killing yourself, as most of these long albums tend to get pretty boring midway. The “Blind Guardian meets Orden Ogan in outer space” atmosphere works really well for these dudes, and they manage to mix the characteristic melodic nature of power metal with heavier instrumental with ease.
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Songs like “A King is Born”, “Bury the Sun” and “Urth” make good use of this mix, with the latter being one of the best songs here. The riffs are juicy and the bass lines are prominent, all while the vocal lines are well placed, even if they do sound exaggerated at times. “The Human Condition” features the best chorus and the sense of urgency and the frantic pace make it yet another great track. Classic euro-power choirs are more prominent here, and the slow, atmospheric beginning to the track gives a nice touch to its identity.
Despite the production and mixing being just decent, Alex Bosson’s drums are ever present and the riffs and leads provided by Jason Ashcraft and Chad Anderson stand out remarkably in every tune, adding some more power to the final product.
Like I said before, they do a great job spacing fast songs from the atmospheric moments like “Spectrum”. I would classify this as the weakest song here, though, mainly because of the extremely melodic vocal lines and the overly modern instrumental approach; it is, however, a necessary part of the whole picture. “Silent Skies”, alternatively, starts as a ballad and then bursts into a bombastic, visceral experience. Only losing to “The Human Condition” in quality, the guitar work here is stellar and it’s a great display of an already mature band in terms of songwriting.
The magnum opus of the effort is supposed to be the monstrous title track. I usually don’t have any problems with 10+ minute songs, but there are parts when it feels that they tried too much to create an epic, significant song, making it sound cheesy at times. It’s an awesome song overall, though, with constant changes of pace, well-crafted A cappella parts and beautiful vocal duets. The riffs in here steal the show and the colossal atmosphere, when it doesn’t get lost in its own pretentiousness, is killer.
‘Terror of the Cybernetic Space Monster’ is an awesome album, but it’s a small step back compared to Helion Prime’s debut. The modern elements borrowed from bands like Orden Ogan mixed with classic euro-power songwriting makes this a no-brainer for fans of Unleash the Archers, Judicator and even heavier counterparts like Tad Morose and Bloodbound. The band will quickly gain notoriety if they continue to release quality content like this, so keep these dudes on your radar.
PS: If you follow my reviews, you will notice that I gave Helion Prime and Immortal the same overall rating. This post script is just to make it clear that I have criminally underrated ‘Northern Chaos Gods’, as it’s actually one of the best Black Metal records of the year, so to bring it justice to I’ll correct myself and say it’s worthy of at least a 8.5.