New Revelation is the forth album of the Swedish band Astral Doors. The vocals of Nils Patrik Johansson sound still somewhat forced but very powerful indeed. His sound however absolutely fits with both the melodic songs and the crystal clear production.

The title song is the first song and it explodes out of your boxes. The style is as best describes as an eighties melodic heavy rock song with symphonic influences.
There are quite some maiden influences (the metal choir), but ‘Waiting for the Master’ consists the most Maiden influences; the intro has very much the resemblance with (even better is) ‘Fear of the Dark’.

Most songs are melodic metal songs sometimes up tempo (‘Pentecostal Bound’ and ‘The Gates of the Night’) with real smashing metal solos; other songs are mid tempo with symphonic influences. With ‘Bastard Son’ Astral Doors has a great power ballad.

All in one New Revelation is a melodic metal album with the roots in the eighties metal. On several songs the Maiden-influences are rather dominating but not in an irritating way. The album has a few highlights with ‘Bastard Son’ and ‘New Revelation’, the other songs aren’t bad at all (that is for sure) but they don’t reach the high level of the songs mentioned above.