Mad Max might have taken their name from the iconic film of the same, but they’ve been around as a band for almost as long! This German Melodic Metal band’s debut sneaked out way back in 1982, but their best known albums are probably “Rollin’ Thunder” (1984), “Stormchild” (my particular favourite, released in 1985) and the more commercial “Night Of Passion” (1987), all on Roadrunner back in the day. Mad Max have kind of never gone away, with guitarist Juergen Breforth being the one stable force, resurrecting the band in the late 90’s, then again a few years later up to the present day. He was usually accompanied on these ventures by vocalist Michael Voss (Wolfpakk/ex-Bonfire/Casanova etc) as he was on those 80’s releases and almost as often by current drummer Axel Kruse who was also present on those memorable 80’s releases.
With Voss now moving on, Breforth has assembled a line up to take Mad Max forward once more. Topped off by the impressive vocals of relative unknown Julian Rolinger, this is a band who know where they’re heading, know where they’ve been, where they are now and are happy with how they got there. Mad Max 2022 occupy a musical territory somewhere between Hard Rock and Melodic Metal, and as they deliver their polished, melody driven, chorus-heavy style I can’t help hearing a good mix of their 85 and 87 albums, possibly favouring the latter as the album goes on. For those unfamiliar with the band, think Victory, Dokken, Pretty Maids, Bonfire, The Night Flight Orchestra and Pink Cream 69 all mixed up together on one album and you’re probably half way there.
Predictably for anyone who has read my reviews before, I prefer the band when they up the tempo and heaviness on tracks like ‘Stormchild Rising’, Too Hot to Handle’, ‘Miss Sacrifice’ and ‘The Stage Is For You’, utilising driving rhythms and shining lead-work, but alas for me these are really the only tracks on the album that nudge into this territory. The rest of the album is more Hard/Arena Rock orientated, and don’t get me wrong, contains some great Hard Rock songs, that make this album a very well balanced Heavy Rock album that stands tall, well above some of its contemporaries on labels like Frontiers or AOR Heaven etc. So OK, it’s not quite the Melodic/Heavy Metal Mad Max that I personally was hoping for, but it’s an album that sits well within the bands recent back catalogue and sets out their stall well for the future.
(7/10 Andy Barker)
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