Arriving exactly a year after their perfectly average debut,
Dionysus' second album,
Anima Mundi, pushes the limits of surefire lawsuit to the breaking point by slapping the semblance of Viggo Mortensen (in full Lord of the Rings Aragorn regalia) on the statue gracing its cover. It also opens with a song -- the speedy "Divine" -- that heavy metal fans will instantly recognize as a blatant karaoke job on power metal masters
Helloween -- only with more synthesizers. But that's OK, after all, the power metal subgenre is hardly given to great variety, and one need only sample astoundingly similar follow-up songs like "Heart Is Crying," "Closer to the Sun," and the title track to realize as much. Then again, it's not entirely fair to accuse
Dionysus of playing it safe for that same reason, so it's best to highlight their stellar musicianship, crisp melodies, dazzling solos, and vocalist Olaf Hayer's powerful pipes instead. All of these coalesce quite nicely on the convincingly dramatic "What" and the surprisingly accessible (if terribly corny) "March for Freedom," and there's certainly no denying guitarist
Luca Turilli's position as one of the most impressive six-string technicians out there -- the guy's fingers just smoke! In summary, if you love power metal, then you'll think
Dionysus are the dog's bollocks, but if you never saw the point of a
Keeper of the Seven Keys, Pt. 2, there's nothing for you here. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia