II is already the second album of this unsigned German power metal quintet, founded in the summer of 2000. The cover is one of the worst I have ever laid my eyes upon; a picture obviously drawn by one of the band members himself. Not a too promising start, nevertheless The Claymore manages to positively surprise me. Right from the first song on it is clear that this German band has opted for a more diverse approach than many of its counterparts.

The Claymore’s music is a mixture of American and European power metal, combing speed with more melodic passages. While extremely straightforward songs like “Arborlon” and “The Claymore” are typical European power metal, the excellent “The God Of Crows” and the aggressive “Element Of Hate” on the other hand remind a whole lot more of the American approach to power metal. The Claymore has succeeded in finding a good balance between variation and power; and with a few exceptions, like “The Claymore” and the aforementioned “Arborlon”, the songs are all quite decent and catchy.

Highlights of this album are “The God Of Crows”, “Beyond The Walls Of Tears” and “Element Of Hate”.

The production of this album is, however, terrible. The guitars and drums sound extremely weak and most of the time the bass seems to be totally absent. Of course the band members themselves have produced the album since The Claymore has not been signed to any record label as of yet. The only true problem I have with this album is the singer. Although he obviously does an okay job, his voice unfortunately has a very annoying touch to it. Furthermore, he has a tendency to fill the music with a multitude of useless “haa’s and hoo’s”, which is slightly annoying.

Although II is far from original, it is a very decent album nevertheless. Therefore it slightly amazes me that The Claymore is still without a record deal, since this band certainly has talent. If you are interested and want to know more about this band, I’d suggest you check out their web site: http://www.theclaymore.de.