Year: 2019
Total Time: 01:16:10
Label: Massacre Records

IVORY TOWER are no strangers to the Progressive Metal genre. While they have only released four albums since the late 1990s, their sound has undergone many changes, from Power / Prog to Nu Metal. In its fifth album, “Stronger”, the band shows that eight years from its previous album (which was a rather bad album) is trying to improve its sound for the better.

What you will hear in “Stronger” is an ambitious, quite Progressive effort with several Heavy elements, tied together with a careful production. This is a talented band that in its return to discography, is trying to prove itself. The opener “The Offer” is very aggressive and surprisingly heavy. Their new singer, Dirk Meyer, leaves no room for doubt about his vocal range, with stunning, high notes, but also changes in tone where and when they are needed. He adapts his vocals admirably whenever the band changes directions. “Loser” changes gears on the album, reminiscent of a bit of vintage THRESHOLD, while “End Transmission”, which is also the album’s single, is perhaps one of its best tracks.

It is understandable that, having stayed outside the studio for eight years, you have a lot of ideas gathered and you want to present them in some way, to suit them all. But this is not always good in terms of duration and unfortunately, all the collected ideas are not always good. As a result, despite the nice tracks that are definitely on the album and some of them were mentioned, we have a whole that is tedious, something that could haδ been avoided if there were less songs.

Concluding, it’s nice to have these Power / Prog scene veterans back in action, hoping that they will continue as their new album is titled: “Stronger”.

Rating: 6/10
Editor: Fanouris Exintavelonis
Related Link: IVORY TOWER – Official Page