Тотал II / Total II
Produced by Konstantin JambazovAs if the wine is getting matured, Bulgaria's unknown heavy metal band that had been sleeping for a long time... The secret sound source is released miraculously. High tone voice on beautiful synthesizer arrangement and technical guitars. A lament of the lyrical beauty filled with melodies hooks in you!
- Released by: ORPHICTONE
- Label No. ORPH-0004
- UPC/EAN: 4988044926981
- Release date: 11 May 2016
12 songs / duration: 60:55
- 1 Центрофуга / Centrifuga 4:06
- 2 Оковани мечти / Dreams in chains 3:59
- 3 Стремя се към теб / I strive for you 3:37
- 4 Меланхолия / Melancholy 4:31
- 5 Надежда / Hope 5:48
- 6 Зараза / Infection 5:04
- 7 Queen's world 4:13
- 8 Слуги на слугите / Servants of the servants 7:59
- 9 Любов / Love 1:30
- 10 Регресия / Regression 5:35
- 11 Самодостатъчен / Sef-centred 6:37
- 12 Време да се погрижиш за себе си / Time to take care of myself 7:50
It’s interesting to hear how much talent didn’t make it big back then. The fact that the band sings in its native tongue and also the song titles are in Bulgarian (fortunately the titles are also mentioned in English here) definitely has something to do with that in Total’s case. But dammit, this not only sounds quite tasty, but besides the solid songwriting the gentlemen also show a lot of talent on instrumental, vocal an technical matters, that definitely match the better-known acts. Despite the fact that the music is quite peculiar the whole sound catchy, and if I had the slightest idea of the lyrics I would have been singing along loudly. Although we are dealing with old recordings the sound is in a good shape and matches today’s standards. Kudos to Orphictone for putting the band in the spotlights and making the material available. Fans of melodic, progressive 80s and early 90s hardrock and heavy metal should definitely check this out.
For fans of Hard-Rock, happy moods, and eruptive guitars, I suggest “I Strive For You” (3:37) and “Hope” (5:48) – two excellent songs in the vein of “Van Halen”, “Mr. Big”, and “Extreme”! “Total II” is a great collection of seminal Power-Metal songs mixed to opulent Neo-Classic instrumentation and Hard Rock vibes that revives all of Total’s glorious past, consisting in an indispensable item for fans of “Yngwie Malmsteen”, “Michael Schenker”, “Van Halen”, “Vandenberg”, “Alcatrazz”, “Cacophony”, “Loudness”, “Helloween”, “Agent Steel”, “Angra”, “Rhapsody”, “Sonata Arctica”, “Derdian”, “Adagio”, “Queensrÿche”, “Crimson Glory”, “Judas Priest”, “Iron Maiden”, “Anthrax”, “Metallica”, “Megadeth”, “Extreme”, “Mr.Big”, “Kings X”, “Stryper”, “Manowar”, “Queen”, and so on.