(Heavy / Progressive) Valley's Eve - Deception Of Pain - 2002, APE (image+.cue), lossless

Written by Xeper on August 16th, 2003 for http://www.metal-archives.com

Sometimes you get an album that doesn't necessarily blow your mind, but just makes you bang your head like a motherfucker and appreciate the good old fashioned nature of heavy metal. This is one such album. Valley's Eve have a winner here in Deception of Pain, an album that stands apart from the pack by not trying to stand out. The album is a mostly midpaced power metal type affair, but not watered-down modern day power metal. I mean metal with real fucking power, chunky riffing (none of that groove-laden bullshit, just the occasional triplet-based rhythms, this is 100% metal folks), killer rhythm guitar work, solos that shred when they need to, a singer with a great voice whose range is slightly lower than most power metal banshees, memorable choruses, and songwriting that is stripped down to memorable formats. I'm all for progressive music, but this release is refreshingly simple in its approach, and man does it work while making you want to raise the fucking horns. The keyboards are there on some songs, but used tastefully within reason, only providing atmosphere instead of any wankfests. The rhythm section is fucking solid, nothing overly fancy here, and man is that a relief. Kind of reminds me of Sinner in places but with less Priest influence, if that makes any sense. Fantastic band, and it's good to hear some bands still playing metal the way it was meant to be, no-frills and aggressive while still steeped in all the trappings that make metal so damn good. Worth looking into.