Review by Greg on August 4, 2024.

It's scientifically proven that hiring the most legendary vocalist in your genre for your band's sophomore effort will raise the interest towards it by a good 250% if compared to normal circumstances.

Sadly, the zero reviews for The Mad King here immediately debunk this theory, with the partially extenuating detail that we're talking about a rather new release. As for me, since it pops up in my recommendations every single time I listen to anything remotely connected to metal on YouTube, it was a matter of time.

Warrior Path introduced themselves as a brand new and interesting if arguably nostalgic, entity right from their s/t debut, a sincere old-school, and heavy-infused power opus that unfortunately suffered from some over-ambitious moments that held the whole package back, in addition to a quite severe case of inconsistency between its two halves. Comparisons with Firewind are inescapable, be it for the country of provenience or the presence of ex-member Bob Katsionis on lead guitar, yet some parallels with Avantasia can also be drawn for their shared love for traditional metal and the mastermind being a single guy, in this case, the virtually unknown Andreas Sinanoglu. Back then, vocals were handled by Yiannis Papadopoulos of Beast in Black fame, who in a certain sense should feel honored to have been replaced, as hinted before, by a living legend in power metal circles, none less than Daniel Heiman, ex-Lost Horizon for the uninitiated. Heiman's presence, however, doesn't automatically imply that Warrior Path finally offers that alternative to LH that many are still looking for, as The Mad King follows closely its predecessor, and appears even more streamlined, mid-paced, and, dare I say, commercial. For something slightly more akin to Heiman's days as Ethereal Magnanimous, and still fresh, you may want to check out the proggier Dimhav instead. But that's a story for another time. Onward to The Mad King.

The mandatory intro makes us familiar with the clean and potent sound, courtesy of Mr. Katsionis, and while there's not a proper transition from it to the subsequent title track (which features another rather longish intro), it still manages to sneak a cool riff halfway through. The title track itself immediately ups the ante with its impossibly catchy intro riff, then Heiman starts doing what he knows best, and voilà, we already have the first ohrwurm. So far, so good, if a bit on the simple side. At this moment, The Mad King could be ruined only if Sinanoglu was out of riffs after this track. Phew, an improbable circumstance...

Right?

Okay, it was clearly a hyperbole, but not far from the alarming truth.

This time, Warrior Path apparently tried a different approach, starting with three safe, 4-minute songs in a row, but still, some smart, minor cool touches mask their underlying straightforwardness, like the 'woah's introducing the otherwise simplistic chorus of 'His Wrath Will Fall' or the killer solo, complete with a pace change, in 'Beast of Hate' which basically uses the same vocal line throughout its entire length. Then, from 'Don't Fear the Unknown' onwards, the first actually different track, everything just goes downhill. Try to listen to it, and tell me that it hasn't got the most painfully pedestrian refrain they could have thought of. Seriously, the choice of singing the exact same notes played by the guitars kinda worked with Ozzy Osbourne back in the day... but it's a long way to make it work in the context of a power metal album (it's not even the only example on The Mad King...). Anyways, it was hardly my main concern, since the song itself is probably the nadir of the album: it basically feels like a (mediocre) 3 minute song stretched out to 7 and a half by virtue of a long intro, a long interlude (arguably the better part) and a long outro, but no real change of scenario throughout it all, giving the impression that said parts were attached later to the song for length reasons and boom, easy 'epic' created. It feels by the numbers even to a power metal newbie like me.

You know what, for how oversimplified the short songs are, they're easily the best on The Mad King, with 'Neverending Fight' being a surprising late highlight. For all the (more or less) acknowledged songwriting problems that Lost Horizon had, they ultimately handled long compositions better than Sinanoglu. The middle triptych of the album, unfortunately, drags way more than needed, ranging from the inoffensive and directionless 'Savage Tribe' to the worst offenders in the aforementioned 'Don't Fear the Unknown' and 'Avenger', thought with an admittedly encouraging sung first half (that spoken word intro... let's all forget it ever happened, shall we?) and a completely instrumental second half, yet the latter basically consists of a rehash of the title track's riff (tell me I'm not the only one hearing it), with a couple of small leads here and there. The constant feeling is that there aren't as many ideas as needed, and the fact that nearly every transition needs an acoustic guitar break doesn't help in this regard. The lone exception is the closer 'Last Tale', and that, man, ticks all the right boxes. A huge, finally epic closer, with different sections, elaborate soloing, and Heiman's soaring vocals simply owning this one. Which brings me to the next issue...

...nah, just kidding, Heiman's performance is predictably impeccable, I couldn't even fake some disappointment. His unbelievably crystalline set of pipes, a good 20 years after the Lost Horizon debut, was kind of a given for the review, but I assure you that I'm not an iota less impressed by him. Performances like this one truly justify the reverence and utmost respect towards him. Unfortunately, there are some issues regarding our favorite dude as well, more or less directly. First of all, but you should have guessed it, he isn't always given particularly memorable lines to sing. Also, his highs stand out from the mix (justifiably), but with an overabundance of layering that will really be a matter of taste for the listeners. And in all honesty, though it seems quite a cruel nitpick seeing the backlash here received by the 3 ballads out of 10 songs on the debut, I really started to want him singing on a softer piece, seeing that there are none. Finally, but it isn't exactly a novelty, the lyrics are stock, in the worst sense possible. I get that power metal lyrics are usually pigeonholed either in the 'magic+dragons+epic quests' category or in the 'battles+honour+warriors' one, with the band here examined clearly gravitating towards the second, but they don't quite match the class of Heiman's vocals, whoever wrote them (Sinanoglu, I'm starting to suspect). They appear more like AI-generated Manowar lyrics, and that's never a good sign. I honestly wasn't expecting to be let down this much by the lyrics on a power metal album but eh, here we are.

So, at the end of the day, I didn't want to give The Mad King a negative rating, but it honestly doesn't deserve it. A good half of the songs are enjoyable, and the voice singing them is still one of the best in the business, but there is truly no way to sleep on the fact that 1/3 of the album's length is pretty bland, and it's placed right in the spot where the band was expected to show its best weapons. Recommended, to power fans and Lost Horizon widows alike, but to a certain degree.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10