{"id":10547,"date":"2013-03-26T00:00:09","date_gmt":"2013-03-26T00:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=10547"},"modified":"2013-06-01T16:12:02","modified_gmt":"2013-06-01T16:12:02","slug":"album-review-pretty-maids-motherland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/album-review-pretty-maids-motherland\/","title":{"rendered":"PRETTY MAIDS – Motherland (2013) | Album \/ EP Reviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

PRETTY MAIDS
Motherland<\/strong><\/span>
\n\"\"
\nFrontiers (2013)<\/span>
Rating: 7.5\/10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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If anyone has heard the lead single \u2018Mother Of All Lies\u2019 then you\u2019ll know what type of hard rock extravaganza you\u2019re in for. The last Pretty Maids opus, Pandemonium<\/em><\/a> (2010), was a rewarding heavy metal experience, and Motherland<\/em> follows suit as a clean-cut, well-polished metal album.<\/p>\n

Personally, I still prefer the band\u2019s older material, particularly the 1984 opus Red Hot And Heavy<\/em>, and while their current sound is far removed from those fiery days, the Danes can still pack a punch. The five-piece are masters at melting together crystal clear melodies and Gothic-tinged Euro metal, and the result is a wholesome sound bolstered by the soaring, yet oaken wails of Ronnie Atkins whose soul never seems to age.<\/p>\n

The two lead off tracks to promote the album are the synth-driven \u2018Mother Of All Lies\u2019 and \u2018Sad To See You Suffer\u2019, the former being a rather smooth ride with its political theme. Atkins\u2019 vocals soar above the sweeping guitars of Ken Hammer and Allan Tschicaja\u2019s drum backbone. However, in my opinion, \u2018Mother Of All Lies\u2019 is probably the weakest track on offer. Drenched in melody the song fails to deliver the goods except with Atkins\u2019 vocals which effortlessly shift between tones, and the same could be said for the pop-tinged \u2018Sad To See You Suffer\u2019. Considering both of these tracks are \u201csingles\u201d I\u2019m left disappointed, despite being impressed by the crisp production.<\/p>\n

Even so, the remainder of the album lives up to expectations for the most part. Straight ahead rocker \u2018Hooligan\u2019 sees the band doing what they do best; Ren\u00e9 Shades is a killer bass player who shudders the spine with his bellow, and again Hammer\u2019s guitars are pivotal.<\/p>\n

The band really shine though on the stupendous \u2018Bullet For You\u2019 which deserves to be a hit. It\u2019s the kind of track that serves up an infectious chorus that digs its heels in to the extent you\u2019ll be humming it all the way to the shops! \u2018Why So Serious?\u2019 provides similar pleasure, as the band effortlessly shifts between moods again, one moment cutting deep with a heavy guitar, the next providing us with a pensive soundscape in the form of the moving \u2018Infinity\u2019.<\/p>\n

Although Motherland<\/em> lacks the consistency of its predecessor it\u2019s still a solid record, but for every beacon of a track, the light then seems to dim, particularly with the average \u2018I See Ghosts\u2019 and album closer \u2018Wasted\u2019 which both drift by without any real effect.<\/p>\n

Motherland<\/em> is far from being a bad album, but because Pandemonium<\/em> was such a rocker, it\u2019s fair to say that this time round the band hasn\u2019t quite hit the right notes. However, when Pretty Maids does get it right \u2013 and they quite often do \u2013 they are one of Europe\u2019s finest. Maybe I\u2019m just hung up on that last opus and also the fact that those other rock veterans Saxon have just released an absolute corker in the form of Sacrifice<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Neil Arnold<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PRETTY MAIDSMotherland Frontiers (2013)Rating: 7.5\/10 If anyone has heard the lead single \u2018Mother Of All Lies\u2019 then you\u2019ll know what type of hard rock extravaganza you\u2019re in for. The last Pretty Maids opus, Pandemonium (2010), was a rewarding heavy metal experience, and Motherland follows suit as a clean-cut, well-polished metal album. Personally, I still prefer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pretty-maids"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10547"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12227,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10547\/revisions\/12227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}