Scanner
The Judgement

Well, well, Scanner, that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long, long time. 2002 was the last time they released a new album, Scantropolis that featured Lisa Croft on vocals and it was awful. In fact this band once released an album called Hypertrace that was utterly fantastic, then they released Terminal Earth the year after and that was very strong as well but the three albums that followed in the nineties and early 2000s was terrible. Not much remains of the Scanner that blew my mind with Hypertrace, only Axel Julius who plays the guitar remains and the rest of the guys are doing their first album with Scanner. It looks the part of the Sci-fi, not as rough and raw as it was in the late eighties but it looks futuristic and the Scanner logo is there. It looks exciting but so did the three latest albums as well and they weren’t fantastic, so what about now? Can we finally say that Scanner is back?

Well, the music is classic power metal often with a high tempo and the sense of a hymnic nature to the songs. The production is modern but also nods back to a time when metal was less carefully arranged and felt more spontaneous, in some senses it actually reminds me of the feel from the Hypertrace album. Songs like The Race or Battle of Poseidon are two that brings those thoughts to mind, what is missing for me is a singer like Knoblich of that era. Ioannidis is a good strong vocalist with lots of power in his voice, the riffing is powerful as well. This album has a quality feel to it, the variation is strong in the album and I find the album feeling short despite the irrefutable fact that it is 55 minutes long – that is some feat to pull off I think. At times I tend to feel that this is vintage Scanner, and that is not a bad thing, after all they only did that one impressive album that to me still belongs amongst my all time favourite albums.

This one does not belong there and most likely never will do, but it is still an amazing album. The songs are excellent and the album has no real weaknesses, sure I would have liked to have a vocal style more in the vein of the Hypertrace album but I know I cannot always get what I want and this band still has an excellent vocalist who does bring out the best in the songs. I think that we can conclude that this album shows a band that is returning to a form that we have not seem them show for several decades, that they are finally realising something of that potential that they showed back in the late eighties but failed to realise in the following decades. I think that Scanner once again has proven themselves worthy of the metal fans’ attention and that is something they haven’t done in a very long time.

With this album Scanner states that they are back and hopefully it is a statement of intent of what is to follow from this guys because this is almost as good as it gets in the power metal genre today, The Judgement is an excellent comeback from a band that was discounted decades ago. Best of the songs is the second track F.T.B. the track called the Race and the track Battle of Poseidon that are all amazing tracks. Sure, we don’t get anything like Terrion or Warp7 but we do get Scannerish power metal that goes into warp speed and takes us on a journey we had thought they long ago had forgotten how to undertake. I think that the answer to all our questions about this album are: yes, Scanner is back and they are a force to be reckoned with – finally!

HHHHHHH