EGO PROJECT – Ego

Ego Project is a side project of several well known Hungarian musicians who were – and are – active in several other bands. The rhythm section consisting of István Beloberk and his brother Zsolt Beloberk on drums is taken from Kalapacs, and István Nachladal is the singer of Wisdom (see reviews here on MER), while Norbert Jung has played his six string for Pokolgép before. If one knows that Pokolgép is a Hard Rock legend in Hungary, and the other two band’s latest releases have scored quite highly here on MER, it will not surprise that the Ego project appeals to fans of the mentioned bands too.

Ego Project play a style which – hopefully – will never go out of fashion, although it is everything but modern. The band mixes traditional Heavy Metal with Power Metal and New Wave Of British Heavy Metal influences. If that already sounds interesting, this is an album to get. Although the line-up lists only one guitar, the album does not leave anything to wish for and delivers the guitar power one may expect in this genre. The two singers are also both of excellent quality, and the sound is satisfying. As in their original bands, the Hungarians write their lyrics in their native language, which somehow sounds less strange on this album than it does on several others having been reviewed here on MER. It seems that whoever wrote the lyrics had a great skill to make the rather harshly pronounced language flow.

Ego Project mixes fast songs and slower hymns skillfully to create an entertaining album which will remind the listener of many great bands of the genre, the foremost being Iron Maiden. Tracks four and five, “Egyszer Majd” and “Zür Van”, would fit nicely into the pre-nineties era with Dickinson, especially during the first song where the vocal melody could have easily been written by Bruce himself. Occasional reminiscences to Judas Priest like in “Atok” or Accept as in “Gázt Még” or “Szinház” can be heard, too, without being too blatantly ripped off.

To the above influences from NWoBHM and traditional German Metal, Ego Project added a helping of Melodic Metal and created some very strong vocal melodies, with the song “A Gép” standing positively out, and some Scandinavian Power Metal as displayed by the opening track “Harcom!”. That creates a very entertaining album, not to a small part, due to the fact that generally the songs are all rather short and straight to the point, so that there is a good chance the CD will remain in one’s player for longer than one spin. Or longer than one day.

The production is good, the guitar sound clear, the rhythm section powerful, so there is nothing bad to be said about this album. A great release!