Deriving their name from J. R. R. Tolkien’s 1955 essay English and Welsh in which he says that cellar-door is the most beautiful word in the English language. That is where the similarity betwixt the two ends, as Cellador are an American Power Metal band established in 2003 in Nebraska, but based in Denver, Colorado. Their début album Enter Deception (Metal Blade) came out in 2006 and mixed eye-wateringly fast metal with impressively high-pitched vocals. After touring with a whole host of big names, Queensryche, Helloween, Trivium and Bullet For My Valentine to name a few, they went on hiatus in 2009 after several band members quit.

Fast forward to the present day and Cellador are back with new album Off The Grid (Scarlet Records), with the sole surviving original member axeman Chris Peterson also taking up singing and production duties on the record. It carries on where their 11-year-old début left off, namely impressively fast metal with high-pitched vocals and a veritable feast of solos. ‘Sole Survivors’ and ‘Wake Up The Tyrant’ show off the record the best, they are catchy, dramatic and fast slabs of metal that leave you happily whistling along; the latter of which sports a marvelous albeit brief synth solo amidst the galloping metal.

The level of musicianship here is high, especially on the breakneck speed of the eminently melodious ‘Swallow Your Pride’, which evokes their famous Power Metal brethren DragonForce. The whole records carries on in this vein with all ten tracks going for the throat, which, whilst undoubtedly commendable, results in an unbalanced album. It feels too top-heavy and the consistently ferocious barrage of pounding drums, riffs and wailing solos wear thin over the course of forty plus minutes.

It is a decent comeback album with catchy songs done at an impressively brutal speed, all of which show off their admirable musicianship. Alas, the lack of deviation results in growing levels of repetition and weariness toward the end.

6.0/10

THOMAS THROWER