Scanner – The Cosmic Race (2024)

Scanner falls in the category of great bands that release new music sparsely, with “The Cosmic Race” being their 7th album in 36 years. You never know if they will return but when you see their name you are flooded with joy. Their music is Heavy/Power Metal filtered with some Speed and Thrash Metal touches depending on the album you will listen to. Each Scanner fan may have a different favorite period, so I would like to take this opportunity and share what a masterpiece 1997’s “Ball of the Damned” is, so if you haven’t had the honor, better late than never. Back to the album in review now, its sound is a natural continuation of their previous endeavor “Judgment”. 

As the album starts and without any unnecessary intros, The Earth Song makes its appearance with a great lead guitar in the spotlight for a fast song that is faithful to the band’s identity and we are off to a great beginning. It gives its place to Face the Light, a much less speedy song but with a great riff and a vocally multilayered chorus, a trademark of Scanner. The whole album continues on the same path alternating between fast and slower moments that share one thing. We are talking about good Heavy Metal music. Highlights of the “Cosmic Race” are definitely the guitars, both rhythm and lead, not to mention the wonderful solos especially in moments like Farewell to Sun. Efthimis on vocals does a great job and elevates all songs with his unique tone and performance. Finally, Scanner use backing vocals masterfully like in the song Dance of the Dead.  

On the other hand I have to comment on the inconsistency of  faster moments overshadowing the slower ones. Dance of the Dead does very little after Warriors of the Light. When you have the peak moments of Scanner’s Law and Space Battalion, the interlayed New Horizon and Farewell to the Sun leaves something to be desired. Exception is the closing The Last and First in Line that is reminiscent of the band’s glorious past. This was not something I felt during their past albums, as in “Judgement”, songs like Eutopia and Known Better could stand face to face with their faster siblings.   

If “The Judgment” compensated Scanner’s 13 year absence, then “The Cosmic Race” does the same for another 9 years of waiting. Being one step beneath its predecessor as a whole but with individual compositions being on the same level if not higher, Scanner’s new work should definitely accompany every fan that wants the Metal in their Power Metal. Let’s hope that we will not need to wait for another decade before their return in discography.

75/100

Pavlos Pavlakis

On behalf of Metal Domain