Mystic Prophecy
Vengeance

So, we start 2017 by looking back through the looking glass, back fifteen years in time to the debut album by Greek-German power metal heroes Mystic Prophecy. It seems like someone found it to be time to rereleasing that album called Vengeance, and album that has received a small facelift and two live tracks as added bonus. The live tracks was recorded in 2007 and are not tracks that are heard in studio versions on this album so we get a dozen tracks on this blast from the past. The question is however if it has stood the test of time, and if it is any match for the great recent albums by Mystic Prophecy.

I would say that the test of time is withstood fairly well, the production is strong and the sound is good. Not as refined and dynamic as their recent works but it is still a pretty strong album. But it also proves that it wasn’t better in the past, the band has evolved a lot since then and their best works are in the recent past, not the distant past. Some bands do begin with their greatest album, at a level they never ever reach again – I think Mystic Prophecy begun with one of their worst album and has surpassed it many times since.

I am not saying that this is a poor album, just that they have done several that are better. There is no real need to gut this album, unless of course you are collecting their stuff, then it could be a good one to get. Musically it has some good stuff, the live tracks I can do without and generally think that they should rather find more interesting bonus tracks than live tracks for albums such as this. But you can always skip these tracks; they come at the end so you can turn it off after track ten.

In the end I think that Mystic Prophecy’s debut is a pretty good album but it also goes to show that things weren’t better in the past – Mystic Prophecy, like so much else, are better today than they were fifteen years ago.

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