Review: Axel Rudi Pell – Risen Symbol
Steamhammer / SPV (June 14th 2024)
Reviewer: Jason Hopper
While some may hesitate to review a new Axel Rudi Pell album, I welcome a new release from him with open arms. Having been a fan of his for over 25 years, I discovered him when I discovered one of my favorite singers, Jeff Scott Soto and began collecting every release I could find that he sang on. The first Axel album I ever purchased, the phenomenal ‘Black Moon Pyramid‘, remains my favorite. Numerous albums followed and while not every release was great, there were always at least a few tracks that became regular staples on my playlists. With his 22nd release, titled ‘Risen Symbol‘, I once again embrace what many would consider an artist who has become formulaic in his approach to song-writing. Would I find a few great new tracks, a great album, or the same unoriginal constructs he has a habit of recycling over and over again?
The first single did make me consider if I should bother reviewing this album. ‘Guardian Angel’ was a standard hard rocking track that I’m convinced Axel wrote in his sleep. No new territory here is tracked, but that is not my issue with this song. It’s the syllables in the chorus, there’s simply too many. It’s an unforgivable offense to have a great singer like Johnny Gioeli cram a three-syllable word like “Guardian” into a two-syllable framework. It was jarring the first time I heard it. Why did he not start the vocals outside of the frame of the chorus at the end of the bridge and space out the lyrics? I’ve since gotten use to the track, but that does not absolve it from a mistake no one should make.
Luckily, the second single, ‘Darkest Hour’ was a return to form. It’s not ground-breaking and relies on aspects familiar to his older material, but it’s what I expected from Axel. Johnny’s vocals, as always, just sells the material to me. More importantly, everything is spaced out appropriately and Johnny’s cadence is given the respect it deserves.
While those two tracks would be considered standard fare for Axel at this stage in his career, there were a few surprises to be had. I did not expect the heaviness of opening track ‘Forever Strong’ to harken back to some of my favorite heavier tracks from him that he has not attempted in years. If you are a fan of songs like ‘Ghost in the Black’ or ‘Earls of Black’, the tempo to this track fits right in between. It’s great to hear Johnny in such fiery form.
In contrast to this, Axel decided to cover Led Zeppelin’s ‘Immigrant Song’ and made it one of the worst versions I’ve ever heard of the song. To the song’s credit, it starts with an interesting sitar melody, leading to Axel using a wah-wah pedal, and it’s at this point that I’m wondering if this track is even a cover, but then he goes into that legendary refrain utilizing the wah-wah but kicks into familiar territory with the start of the vocals. My issue outside of the straightforward re-creation of the song is the vocal approach. Johnny does not sound like he has his heart in this track and sleepwalks through it. Axel does change things up once again by slowing the melody down for the guitar solo, but he has taken this same approach about 30 times on previously released songs (it’s his most familiar trope) so it adds nothing new here. A side note – there is no one and I mean NO ONE who can touch the cover that Gotthard did of this track back in the mid-90s.
Speaking of familiar tropes, it would not be an Axel Rudi Pell album if it did not contain a least one song that pushed the 10-minute mark. Most of Axel’s songs that are this long are a slog to get through, with just a handful of tracks that I can enjoy on a relisten. Fortunately, ‘Ankhaia’ is one of those tracks. It very much reminds me of the track ‘Black Moon Pyramid’ and some may take issue with how similar it is, but I found it just different enough for me to weigh it on its own merits. That said, it does have a strange, Arabic melody change in the middle where the band stops playing and the track is taken over by strictly keys and other Arabic-type instrumentation. It goes back and forth on this several times and the song would have been better without its addition.
I do like how this album harkens back to the feel of his earlier material. Along with ‘Ankhaia’ and the opening track, you have the heavy and mid-tempo paced ‘Hell’s on Fire’ and closer ‘Taken by Storm’ which opens like it’s another ballad but then switches up into a heavy groove reminiscent of ‘The Gates of the Seven Seals’, one of my all-time favorite tracks in his catalog.
A few tracks fail to resonate. I’ve never been a fan of many of Axel’s ballads as I find their arrangements to be dull and overindulgent. ‘Crying in Pain’ does nothing to change my mind. ‘Right on Track’ has an exciting intro and I was digging the groove, but the chorus feels like more of a bridge, with Johnny keeping his range low, which diminishes the overall impact. Not a bad song, but it could have been a bit stronger if the vocals had reached a higher octave.
One last issue to point out. The album has ten tracks, but one is an intro and one is a cover, so there are only eight original songs. A little skimpy in terms of album content. Nonetheless, this is the best album he has released since 2016’s ‘Game of Sins’. I will return to five of these nine tracks and perhaps warm to the others with repeated plays. If you dug the sound of 90s Axel Rudi Pell, I would highly recommend checking out this latest release. It is certainly one of his better albums.
Line-Up:
Axel Rudi Pell – guitar
Johnny Gioeli – vocals
Volker Krawczak – bass
Ferdy Doernberg – keyboards
Bobby Rondinelli – drums
Tracklist:
- The Resurrection (Intro)
- Forever Strong
- Guardian Angel
- Immigrant Song
- Darkest Hour
- Ankhaia
- Hell’s on Fire
- Crying in Pain
- Right on Track
- Taken by Storm
ROCKPOSER DOT COM! 