Pharaoh - The Longest Night
Cruz Del Sur Music

file under heavy / power metal

Nima: This American band made their entrance in 2003 with the album ‘After The Fire’. Three years after the release of that album the band finally releases its second album ‘The Longest Night’. Why it took the band three years to come with a follower is unknown to me, but after hearing this album I can conclude that it was worth waiting for.

For the ones who don’t know this band, Pharaoh is a quartet with Tim Aymar on vocals, who is of course known from his fantastic performance with Chuck Schuldiner’s heavy metal project Control Denied. This band plays traditional heavy metal in the vein of Iron Maiden and which is of great quality. Pharaoh has two rather strong aspects. The first one is of course Tim Aymar whose powerful vocals see to many enjoyable moments. What a performance. Also his way of singing leaves no point of criticism. His style reminds me a bit of Bruce Dickinson but also of the grandmaster Dio. In short: powerful, emotional en very convincing. The second strong aspect is guitarist Matt Johnsen who leaves a great impression on this album. Also the rhythm machine Chris Black and Chris Kerns is very powerful and precise. Listen to songs like ‘Sunrise’, Endlessly’, the sublime ‘By The Nightsky’ and the utterly powerful up-tempo tune ‘Fighting’ and you’ll know what I mean. This album knows little weak moments and is highly recommendable to the ones who enjoy bands like Iron Maiden, Dio, but also a band like Iced Earth. The beautiful artwork of Jean-Pascal Fournier (who is also responsible for Immortal’s ‘At The Heart Of Winter’) makes the picture complete.

Rating: 85/100 (details)

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