Silent Force returns with their fourth album and although considered a real band rather than just a project, it serves as a vehicle for the writing partnership between vocalist D.C. Cooper (ex-Royal Hunt) and guitarist Alex Beyrodt (Sinner, Primal Fear). Infatuator was the first album that I'd heard from Silent Force and I was very impressed. Their last album World's Apart was also a solid album but lacked the killer punch of Infatuator. Although not really re-inventing anything in the melodic heavy metal/power metal genre, Silent Force offers the listener great riff-driven heavy metal that's huge in it's melodic aspects and if killer sing-a-long choruses are a necessity in your heavy metal then you're in for a real treat. Walk The Earth also marks the debut release from the band for their new label AFM Records.

The music on Walk The Earth offers the listener some muscular double-bass driven power metal as found with tracks like Man And Machine, Point Of No Return, The King Of Fools and Running Through The Fire. Energetic with healthy doses of speediness, D.C. Cooper's voice just soars on these and all tracks for that matter. His very strong vocal presence is unique and makes Silent Force's music instantly identifiable. He has a sort of "throaty" voice that at times reminds me of Steve Walsh (Kansas) and John Wetton (Asia) and has the ability to double up his vocal tracks giving many of the songs on this album the huge Asia like choruses much like we heard on their first two albums in the early 80's. He's also more than capable of delivering some Halford style screams. Besides melodic power metal, Silent Force also offers up some very tasty melodic heavy metal with the title track Walk The Earth being a prime example. The classic Blackmore era Rainbow influence comes through with In From The Dark and Picture Of A Shadow all bearing some catchy "Ritchie style" riffs and melodies. The album drops back a notch or two midway for Goodbye My Ghost with Save Me From Myself being the obligatory epic power ballad that you know must be lurking somewhere in any melodic heavy metal album. The production quality and overall sound is as good or better than most other melodic power metal releases and the guitar work by Alex Beyrodt very solid. There are lots of riffs to sink your teeth into with many tracks changing gears midway for atmospheric interludes sprinkled with tasty lead guitar work. The use of keyboards thickens up the bands sound and does give their music a slight progressive edge over others in the genre but the keys are usually relegated to the background leaving the guitar front and center in the band's sound. As a bonus, a video track of the band performing Judas Priest's You've Got Another Thing Coming is included whereas the Japanese version contains a very cool acoustic version of Saints And Sinners, a track originally found on the band's 2000 debut album Empire Of The Future

I have my favorites but it's really a matter of personal taste as this album is chocked full of very solid songs with great choruses and a great heavy yet melodic sound. Silent Force offers up the perfect blend of power metal, melodic heavy metal and even more standard hard rock styles with soaring melodies yet with enough muscle to satisfy even the most discerning power metal fan. Although not a very "deep" album, it is a fine example of how to make heavy and melodic music without any of the abrasiveness of some of the other metal genres. Like I mentioned earlier, nothing is re-invented here in the slightest. We've all heard this type of metal so many times before but in this case, it's quite a few notches over and above the rest. If the genre wasn't so saturated, it would be very easy to slap an overly "orgasmic" 90+ "Album Of The Month" score to this album but since we've all become so desensitized anymore.............