Album Review: Alpha Tiger - iDentity

The Freibergers begin with the European anthem of all things «Alpha Tigers» their new album, but whatever it is, the five-piece now seems to have found its own identity with «iDentity». With the third album they finally want to sound the way they always wanted to. While the debut and follow-up were somewhere between "Iron Maiden" and "Queensryche" - which was extremely well received by fan circles - "Alpha Tiger" on "iDentity" sound like "Alpha Tiger". The band calls it: "Leaving the comfort zone" and there's no better way to describe it, because there's a lot more right than wrong done here. Alpha Tigers have found their own DNA.

If you absolutely want to draw cross-references with the present CD, you can still include the early Queensryche phase, when the Seattle Metallers actually still played Metal. Stephan Dietrich's vocals are also reminiscent of Edguy, but that's certainly not the worst criticism. The frontman is the one who has obviously worked on himself the most and who sings as confidently as never before, despite constantly acting in the highest pitches. The whole thing can be cryptically paraphrased as melody-driven Metal, which always keeps an eye on the boundaries of Progressive Metal in terms of playing technique and composition, but never crosses them. "Alpha Tiger" are Dirk Frei (bass), David Schleif (drums), Alexander Backasch (guitar), Peter Langforth (guitar) and Stephan Dietrich (vocals).

Right from the start you clearly show that you are not satisfied with half measures. The opener "Lady Liberty" was released in February 2014 as an independent single and even then it was made clear that they were in the process of developing their own style. A very successful start. The following "Scripted Reality" shines with socio-critical lyrics and somewhat more complex song structures, but unfortunately something of the liveliness and explosiveness that you got with "Lady Liberty" is missing, but the riffs hit the mark. Musically they found each other, the guys have matured lyrically and try to show today's grievances instead of using clichés.

Alpha Tiger - Lady Liberty (Official)

With more experimental pieces like "Long Way Of Redemption" that comes with chestnuts as well as keyboards and synthesizers, "We Won't Take It Anymore" that contains polyphonic passages and "Closer Than Yesterday", they try to emancipate themselves. "Shut Up & Think" with speed metal attitude and "Revolution In Progress" with its driving beginning are rousing power anthems and "This World Will Burn" is a mid-tempo cracker as it should be. The strengths of past releases have not only been retained, they have been expanded! The riffs are even more playful, the refrains are even more catchy and generously enriched with gang shouts and polyphony and the unique selling point, Stephan Dietrich's voice, comes even more to the fore.

Compared to its predecessor, "iDentity" sounds more compact and played more to the point. Arranged in a sophisticated way, but always with the melody as the starting point, provided with socio-critical lyrics that are in no way inferior to bands from the 80s and 90s. «Alpha Tiger» manage to create fast-paced, flawless metal songs, to shake casually intense mid-tempo hits like the title track or the catchy tune "We Won't Take It Anymore" out of their sleeves, or through one that is rather unusually arranged in the band context power ballad («Closer Than Yesterday») before the album closes with the almost seven and a half minute long and varied «This World Will Burn».

With the albums that have already been released, the biggest point of criticism was always that the origins and influences of the band formed their own material too obviously, now after three years they have developed their own style, their own identity. "iDentity" is state-of-the-art in terms of production, Tommy Newton (who already produced Helloween's legendary "Keeper" albums) gave the disc a clear, powerful, but also charmingly retro-oriented sound. Compared to the naively charming debut and «Beneath The Surface», the sound seems a whole lot more direct and ultimately also much more professional and shows how the band has developed with incredible speed and quality. You can tell right away that you've learned a lot when it comes to writing songs.

ALPHA TIGER - We Won`t Take It Anymore (official video)

«Alpha Tiger» are still «Alpha Tiger», but the new album seems much more mature and sophisticated. «iDentity» starts at the points where the predecessors were still too agitated, too unstructured and too energetic. The band bundles their strengths on this album and shows no recognizable weaknesses. "iDentity" stands for 50 minutes of pure heavy, power and speed metal. The five young Saxons have done it (once again) and throw a contender for the album of the year onto the market early in the new year. But unlike bands like "Paradise Lost" or "Metallica", who took musical branches in the course of their careers where they would have preferred to follow the main road, "Alpha Tiger" have developed positively. «Alpha Tiger» deserve every possible support simply because they play the music they love. That alone should be enough of an argument to give «iDentity» its eavesdroppers and maybe even its money.

You can do the album buy in our shop.

Tracklist:

1. Intro
2. Lady Liberty
3. scripted reality
4. Long Way Of Redemption
5. Identity
6. We Won't Take It Anymore
7. Revolution in progress
8. Closer Than Yesterday
9. Shut Up & Think
10. This World Will Burn

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