Starting from the incredible cover and moving on to the press release of the company you can’t help getting a positive vibe about it. There is great participation by huge artists in this project, beginning with the main group whose vocals are handled by our very own Elina Laivera who left behind her the misery and the cliques and moved to the ‘civilized world’ and Henrik Bath from Darkwater and Waken Eyes. We can also find guitarist Michael Alexander and drummer for Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody, Alexander Landenburg. As far as the guests are concerned…. we are talking about a parade! Mark Jansen (Epica), Nils K. Rue (Pagan’s Mind), Charlie Dominici (ex – Dream Theater), Mike LePond (Symphony X), and many more.
“Jaguar Priest” is an album of extremely fascinating melodic power metal with distinct inclination towards progressive, very interesting composition-wise and very well worked-out in its orchestration and production. The listening process manages to maintain one’s interest throughout its duration, leaving behind the essence of the project of course. Without being able to give a reason why, the album gives the feeling (even without looking at the credits) that it belongs to a project band, maybe because releases of similar sound and structure by non-permanent groups have been around. By no means does this moderate the value and quality that define it and it literary ‘forces’ me to recommend it as a great investment. It is rather extraordinary!
