Apollo Ra
Ra Pariah

Yes, I know, you took a look at the rating and the genre of the work and thought you were dealing with the usual enthusiast who sees masterpieces in every '80s band that no one cared about at the time and is now re-evaluated in light of the renewed interest that US Power Metal sounds have come back to garner. Well, maybe I'm an enthusiast, actually, it's very likely, but this one, trust me, if it's not a masterpiece, it gets really close.

Apollo Ra was formed in 1984 in Baltimore during the Heavy Metal boom, but unlike many more fortunate (and often less talented) colleagues, they struggle to emerge from the local scene, where they carve out a substantial following, and their first demo, dated 1989, is released in a period where Thrash is now reigning and monopolizing the public's tastes; naturally, the efforts of the band go almost unnoticed by record labels. The band opts to disband and they fade into the mists of time, but among the devotees of the underground metal cult, their name is whispered more insistently, and around the moniker Apollo Ra, an aura of legend is created until 2000 when this Ra Pariah, essentially a remastered demo of theirs, sees the light thanks to the timely rediscovery by the unknown OPM records.

The group's offering, while aligning with the stylistic elements of Heavy Metal with progressive veins that maintains a high degree of personality, and the inevitable references to names like Queensryche, Savatage, or Fates Warning do not do justice to the originality of the group. Over complex yet effective riffs and a virtuosic but never excessive or over-the-top guitar duo, stands the gritty & powerful voice of David John Miller, the true protagonist of the work: vocal lines teetering between aggression and theatricality delivered with a distinctive timbre, a sort of shriller Jon Oliva. The songwriting serves the talented singer without being enslaved by him, revealing surprising versatility, and the tracks flow as smooth as oil thanks to a rare variety in a work of this kind.

From the elegant "Out Of The Night" (the most blatantly Queensryche-like), to the more hard-rocking "Heaven's Just Another Way," through the heroic "Bane Of The Black Sword" or the NWOBHM echoes of "Creating Zero," fans of the genre will find plenty to sink their teeth into, and I challenge an enthusiast not to rhythmically shake their head with "To Be A Hero", or not to have the melody of "The Challenge" stuck in their head for ages; but the summa of the work is undoubtedly the title track, which contains the aforementioned elements, with an added mystical and evocative vein that makes it one of the pinnacles of the genre.

If I've managed to pique your interest, know that finding it won't be easy, but the effort will be amply rewarded by listening to this gem.