By Kris Engelhart
Hailing from Salt Lake City, Utah, American power metal powerhouse Judicator is about to unleash their latest EP, ‘I Am The Void’, upon the metal masses. The band first made its way onto my radar a few weeks ago when I was scrolling through my emails and the words power metal ‘Mandy’ caught my eye. Huh? In case you are wondering as I was, the Barry Manilow song? Yes, that song and Judicator’s version of ‘Mandy’ is badass and I had visions in my head of Barry himself onstage with a bevy of blistering guitars, banging his head. So I decided to explore Judicator a bit more and was super impressed with what I heard which brings us to the present and their newest EP ‘I Am The Void.’
Clocking in at just over nine minutes, the title tracks starts off with gorgeous keyboards and haunting vocals from frontman John Yelland and we seem to be in full blown piano ballad mode. But then, the thundering rhythm section of bassist John Dolan and drummer Jordy Elcess kicks in and we are off at a frenzied pace. Balmore Lemus provides the blistering guitar leads and we are full steam ahead into an epic power metal orchestration. The track is heavy both musically and lyrically before rising out of the depths of the void to become new again.
The only other track on the EP is a cover of ‘The Curse of Feanor’ from the German power metal band Blind Guardian. Now this inclusion makes perfect sense as the band was founded after John Yelland and Alicia Cordisco, who is no longer in the band, met at a Blind Guardian show back in 2010 and became friends. Judicator for the most part stays true to the Blind Guardian original, driving a frenzied pace of metal excellence throughout the track.
‘I Am The Void’ definitely checks off all the boxes and has earned a permanent spot on my playlist rotation. And to think, I owe it all to Barry.
- ‘I Am The Void‘ is released tomorrow (Friday 8 December).
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