Fifth Angel - Seattle heavy metal anniversary

Fifth Angel - Seattle heavy metal anniversary

October 26, 2018: Fifth Angel - The Third Secret - Nuclear Blast Records

The Third Secret marked the new formation of Seattle (Bellevue, Washington State, USA) heavy metal pioneers Fifth Angel after a long 29-year studio hiatus following 1989's Time Will Tell. The Metal Archives shows this personnel: Ken Mary – Drums, Vocals (backing), Arrangements (strings), Keyboards; John Macko – Bass; Kendall Bechtel – Vocals (lead), Guitars (acoustic, lead, rhythm), Keyboards. All three were part of the band's 1980s run. Unfortunately, as Fifth Angel fans have known for a long time, their legacy singer associated with the band's two 1980s albums, Ted Pilot (singer during 1984–1989), is not part of Fifth Angel, and as The Metal Archives shows: "Ted Pilot distanced himself from music and nowadays he acts as a dental surgeon."

Having said that, the fact is that this album is good, including the singing. The overall quality is solid in all aspects. Clearly, the band must have felt a great deal of pressure to deliver a work worthy of the name, especially if they were going to have the audacity to attempt to put the name Fifth Angel on an album without Ted Pilot singing. Well, the album delivers. It is a traditional heavy metal and power metal album that shows tons of effort and skill, and the singing is good. I understand that fans thought the band was running the horrendous risk of falling flat on their faces for daring to name something Fifth Angel without Ted Pilot, but I would say those fans should at least give this album a listen. In addition, just so you know, years ago, if memory serves me right, I read online that Ted Pilot himself was supportive of the new formation, and I recall reading that Ted Pilot also attended a concert.

FIFTH ANGEL - Shame on You