Good true metal hailing from Portland Oregon. Metal To Infinity users.telenet.be/metaltoinfinity/METALTOINFINITY.htm review Written by Stefan Sileghem Last Empire is a US Power Metal band in which I definitely believe since the release of their self financed debut album back in 2003. As a five piece, good oiled Metal machine - these Americans stole my attention completely... damn right they even conquered my heart also. I was totally hooked on Last Empire's way of music so called US Power Metal brought on with an eagle eye of technical skills. After last Empire unleashed their debut album in 2003, to build up their own studio became plan number 1 to realize back then. They had not the intention built up a supersized kind of studio - the guys in Last Empire knew their financial boundaries and with limited tools... next plan to succeed was the creation of a brand new, second album. Meanwhile, 8 new songs are ready to strike down all US Power Metal maniacs - forget about the nowadays, trendy minded or mainstream Metal scene... ''Heir To The Throne'', the new album from Last Empire comes over the hill an overwhelming manner - powerful, very technical, over the top skilled loaded... Last Empire have it in their might to rip apart many other so called Metal bands! Original members Pat Demartino (lead guitars), singer Brian Allen and Darius Lindell (drums) still together as true believers of Heavy Metal – a new bass player named Joe Preston (Melvins, High On Fire,..) teamed up with them. What about a second guitarist? Well, many came on trying out rehearsals for a while... due to unknown reasons to me, they unfortunately left after all. Last Empire is still looking out for a second axeman so spread the news around please! ''Heir To The Throne'' immediately got me by the throat with the song 'Marked For Death'... pure as can be US Power Metal from a very heavy calibre. Magnificent guitar works, especially the solo tasks to speak to every shredder's imagination! Also Brian Allen's vocal capabilities are very rare - I mean, this guy has all the power deep within his chest / lungs to offer nothing but awesome vocal lines. Very high pitched in the vein of Bob Mitchell (ex-Attacker), Ski (ex-Deadly Blessing, Faith Factor), Midnight (ex-Crimson Glory), Bobby Lucas (ex-Seven Witches, Overlorde), etc ... such types of singing, yeah I really adore with all of my might! Next tracks 'Secrecy' and 'Enemy' destroying my speakers and I'm feeling alright to the extreme - Last Empire succeeds completely drive me to insanity with their awesome way of US Power Metal. Shivers down my backbone with such a great singer and technical guitar shredder - I've received the album today and I listened to all of the songs twice so far... brothers and sisters in True Metal - THIS IS IT! 'The Edge Of Doom' is acoustic an acoustic played composition and I'm not very happy with this on but no problemo… I take it as some kind of a moment of silence before the US Metal train rolls over the rails again for another few songs bringing on several moments of pure satisfaction. Watch out for 'Metal Might' - if you have survived this 'headbanger', try to stay alert for the title track in hope you're provided with enough oxygen to reach the final end with killer ones like 'Summon' and 'The Falconer'. Shredding, high pitched American Power Metal at its best... at Metal To Infinity we reviewed a whole bunch of great US Metal efforts so far, the new CD from Last Empire is next in line to ad to my personal 2009 list of absolutely favourites. All is set up and done by the band themselves - with a limitation of studio tools, the entire band just offered a very worthy product to me. I like it, I praise, I never let go my passion for US Metal - great effort all the way!! As depicted on the front cover of the CD (splendid cover art done by artist Ben House)...''You have to fight for what it's true - in the end you shall be rewarded with the ultimate prize''. Check out: http://www.myspace.com/lastempire and use your imagination regarding these words yourself! For fans of Temple Of Blood, Fallen Sanctuary, Septer, Slauter Xstroyes, early New Eden / Helstar / Seven Witches, Deadly Blessing, Destiny's End,... I will play this silver disc over and over again the next couple of days - that's for sure!! MY POINTS: 98 / 100