RIDE THE SKY -

RIDE THE SKY - NEW PROTECTION - NUCLEAR BLAST  
Nuclear Blast presents us with another one of those CDs where the songs, twelve in this case, are spread over 99 tracks. However, the question is having Uli Kusch and Co. manage to deliver a worthy offering. The early indications, as in the name of the band, are that Ride The Sky borrows very heavily from the background of the people involved. Ride The Sky shares the commerciality of Gamma Ray and countless other German heavy metal bands. Song after song like A Smile From Heaven's Eye to Silent War and all the way to the closing track A Crack In The Wall features interspersed keyboards, slow sections, heavy riffs and screams. There are far too few notable exceptions, The Prince Of Darkness being one, and they don’t last. The aforementioned with its horror movie (Poltergeist) sampled intro paves the way for a Dream Theater sounding song and all without escaping the clutches of the members’ pasts. Done too often and often not convincingly is the key phrase here. - Anna Tergel