After a six year gap, heavy/power metal supergroup adds Magic Circle (& Pagan Altar) vocalist Brendan Radigan and some AOR sparkle.
Not a lot of people know about Sumerlands yet, because they’re a bit of an underground supergroup with members involved in many other projects, so they don’t really tour. They played Decibel’s Metal & Beer Fest in Philly and Hell’s Heroes in Houston in 2018 and again this year, Sunny’s Backyard Vegan Pub in Austin in July, and not much else. Arthur Rizk is very busy as a producer and engineer (Power Trip, Crypt Sermon, Tomb Mold, Smoulder, Primitive Man, Cirith Ungol, Kreator, Soulfly, Eternal Champion) along with playing drums for the latter. Original vocalist Phil Swanson has been in over a dozen bands, including Atlantean Kodex, Hour of 13, Seamount, Vestal Claret. Drummer Justin DeTore has played with over a dozen hardcore punk bands, along with Magic Circle, who are sadly no more. His bandmate Brendan Radigan, who also has been singing with Pagan Alter the past few years, joins in on the new album. Guitarist John Powers and bassist Brad Raub are also in Eternal Champion.
As much as I liked their self-titled debut from 2016, the second album really leaps out with sizzling riffage, some flashy Yngwie-worthy solos and Radigan sounding more than ever like a turbocharged Ozzy. It had me growing out a virtual mullet and driving around an imaginary 1978 Camaro, blasting Dokken on the tapedeck. It’s funny, because I never really got into Dokken, though years later I did get their 2nd and 3rd albums due to George Lynch’s guitar contributions. Sumerlands cites them as an influence, even though Don Dokken teeters a bit too much from a cheesy but fun bridge from hard rock to glam to moldy garbage cheese. I think it’s the band’s subtle self-deprecation to show that they’re no snobs, also namechecking Ozzy Osbourne’s worst 80’s album, Ultimate Sin (1986) as an inspiration for the first album. Perhaps that album is special to them, and it’s a way to show they’re not only obsessed with obscure bands like Cirith Ungol and Manilla Road, but are looking to meld the ambitions of early Fates Warning, Queensrÿche and Fifth Angel with some big money hooky earworms from that era like Scorpions and Foreigner, plus an extra dose of depression. I’m not hearing Foreigner in the melodic bits as much as 80’s AOR era Rainbow, and maybe some Journey & Survivor in the sizzling apex, “Force of a Storm.” “Night Drive” fades in with a marching rhythm like DIO’s “Holy Diver,” and aims high with multi-tracked choruses assisted by Rizk’s synths.
It is melancholic chuggery at it’s finest, but with plenty of sparks and energy that to my ears transcend the majority of their influences. The melodic intro to “Heavens Above,” for example, really sets the mood in a midtempo song that may lack pyrotechnics, but Radigan’s impassioned voice really sells it. While many fans might prefer the debut album with the darker feel with Swanson’s lower register vocals and higher solos to melodic hooks ratio, I can’t help but prefer the Radigan version’s energy, even without the benefit of a Camaro’s tape deck.
