After roughly two years of absence Brainstorm are back and how! Liquid Monster hits you like a ten ton hammer, and lives up to all the expectations you could possibly have. Its predecessor, Soul Temptation, was a brilliant piece of melodic power metal with great melodies and – well what can I say – Liquid Monster is just that again.

The album opens with “Worlds Are Comin’ Through” featuring a few familiar sounds before a pounding riff shatters everything apart. It’s slow, heavy and most of all catchy. Andy B. Franck’s vocals are simply unbelievable. I’ve praised this man on numerous occasions already but I’m afraid I have to do it again. His vocals are diverse and emotional, granting the music a very atmospheric feel. It’s not the polished high pitched stuff that plagues the usual vocalists in the scene but it’s raw and emotional at the same time; simply superb.

With Liquid Monster Brainstorm seem to have taken a step to a heavier sound and I applaud them for it. Instead of falling into the obvious commercial pitfall, these Germans have taken their music one more step forward. Listen to the excellent “Lifeline”, a song that pounds and rocks and is slightly reminiscent of compatriot band Symphorce; maybe not such a big coincidence either.

It doesn’t end there, “Despair To Drown” is even heavier and features slight touches of thrash metal. Andy sounds wicked in this track, and at times even manages to remind of Bobby Blitz from Overkill. The main riff wouldn’t be misplaced on a modern Testament album either. Nevertheless, Brainstorm wouldn’t be Brainstorm if the song wouldn’t have its catchy melodic chorus to lighten it up. Definitely one of the better tracks of Liquid Monster.

Liquid Monster is simply a very diverse album with compact songs that don’t drag on forever. There’s a huge amount of contrast between the songs; from the slow melodic and melancholic “Heavenly” that sends shivers running up and down your spine, to pounding mid-tempo bangers like “Burns My Soul” and fast aggressive tracks like the aforementioned “Lifeline” and “Despair To Drown” or “Even Higher”. I can drag this review on with more praises but why should I? It’s pretty simple really, if you don’t know about Brainstorm by now, you are definitely missing out on something great and you’d better fix that issue immediately. This is melodic power metal at its best.