Axel Rudi Pell
The Ballads

Today, I bring to your attention a very nice album of sweet, delicate, and poetic rock music, a music that reflects the style of the German guitarist Axel Rudi Pell, who, before starting a decent solo career, was playing with Steeler in the full 80s.

It is worth mentioning his collaborators: Jörg Michael, Mike Terrana, Jeff Scott Soto, Rob Rock.
In the current lineup, Mike Terrana is still busy behind the drums, while Ferdy Doernberg is the keyboardist and Volker Krawczak has been on bass since the first formation. How many of you appreciate within power metal albums, the now obligatory "sweet and romantic ballads"?
The ballads, calm pieces, often melancholic, and above all fully atmospheric, slow, and scenic (but still equipped with riffs and solos of pure metallic technique) are an essential characteristic in all melodic metal projects.

The Blind Guardian, just to give an example, have produced many, but it is evident that in each group, even though speed and hyperactivity represent the basic prerogatives, these are always present. Here Axel Rudi Pell inserts only these, taking advantage of his excellent style in tackling these themes, in other words, what has been defined by many as "his romantic charm."

Thus, "The Ballads," a collection of ten calm, atmospheric pieces, fully sweet and catchy but purely rock. Music obviously to avoid for those who only listen to extreme metal.
It opens with "You Want a Love" on acoustic guitar, a rather slow and calm piece that focuses entirely on melody and chorus. It must be said that sometimes the singing leaves something to be desired, but not in terms of quality, which indeed is very high in both expressiveness and clarity and accuracy of the choruses, but in terms of its characteristics, which in my subjective opinion, is aimed at a young and, if you like, somewhat inexperienced audience in the metal context.
Slightly more lively, yet still calm and sweet, is the following "Forever Young", which also focuses entirely on the chorus and melody, which, however, is more atmospheric as it is accompanied by powerful keyboards. A very nice song and quite catchy already on the second listen.

The third track of the album, "Dreams Of Passion" is instrumental and is the most enjoyable song of the entire CD, truly fantastic, starring A.R.P's electric guitar, a delicate and expressive movement for a fully scenic melody, it stimulates ideas of passion and freedom, seems inspired by works of various guitar heroes, first of all, 'For The Love Of God' by Steve Vai, really a great piece that pairs good technique shown in excellent synchronisms, spot-on riffs, and magical solos with a relaxing, almost travel-like sound.
The melodies drag behind melancholy air, as in "Your Life", for example, which, however, begins to sound a bit predictable. Fortunately, the following "Tearin Out My Heart" is another stroke of genius, a well-done piece and absolutely worth listening to. It starts with a gentle sound that soon develops into a typical hard rock context, even concerning the singing, which here twists and extends in typical Deep Purple verses, but always maintaining the recipe that composes a beautiful ballad of melodic metal. The rock has well-constructed and perceptible rises and falls on the instrumental level, great solos again.

Following is a nice piece of soft rock titled "When a Blind Man Cries", also very relaxing and still containing typical Hard Rock characteristics in its form, like Deep Purple's Child in Time. From various viewpoints, our A.R.P. seems to really take a lot from Ritchie Blackmore. "Broken Heart" is another piece that drags a bit of everything we have said so far, again, very well-crafted choruses.
The sounds are elegant, refined, a bit delicate and crystalline, even though, in the end, we are talking about rock, this is all represented in the instrumental piece titled "Falling Tears", which precedes "Broken Heart" in the guitar version.

Final considerations. It's a kind of music that can be liked or can be hated, it has nothing extreme, powerful, or wild, but it has a lot of sweetness, romanticism, charm, poetry, and above all melody. These are songs aimed at a specific audience, not at metalheads in general. It has the flaw of being monotonous and repetitive in some ways, in other ways it is very cool because it is very melodic, suitable as a soundtrack on every occasion.