Hypertrace (1988): ****1/2
This album is about genetically engineered soldiers and stopping war and stuff,
and lyrically, it's kinda cool but pretty cheezy at times. The story is printed in the liner notes. The great part of
this album is the music. It's fast, powerful, with great solos, and somehow
they manage to achieve a great science-fiction sound. I don't even know what
that sound is, but they they create it. This album put Scanner on the map fast,
and is considered by many to be one of the classic power metal albums of the
late 80s. I think it will be hard for the band to ever recapture the magic of this album.
Terminal Earth (1990): ***1/2
Scanner's second effort is a slight step down. The musical and lyrical styles are quite similar to "Hypertrace", the songs just aren't quite as good. They lost Michael M.A.J.O.R. as their lead singer. He was replaced by S.L. Coe, who is
decent but doesn't quite carry the same feeling as Knoblich. Actually, he sounds quite a bit like Kai Hansen (the new version). But the voice was not the most important thing about Coe. Apparently, he had personal problems with Karl Walterbach of Noise, which resulted in the band getting dropped from the label and breaking up. Understandably, there is no love lost between Coe and the rest of Scanner.
Mental Reservation (1995): ***
The band fell apart after "Terminal Earth" but was completely rebuilt five years later. Axel Julius is the only original member. Tom Sopha did help to write a couple songs, but isn't a band member. The new singer Haridon Lee, is pretty good, if a bit high and thin at times. That's also basically the story with this whole album: good stuff, but the melodies aren't as rich as before, they get rather sharp, almost harsh. There's a few great fast, aggressive, power metal songs, but there's too much in the way of slow/mid-tempo ballad-type songs for me. This is also a concept album, with a story printed to go along with the lyrics. This one has something to do with a government agent, and a demon, and nuclear war...it's interesting, but let's just say I don't really listen to Scanner for the lyrics.
Ball of the Damned (1997): ****
Maybe Axel was a little rusty for "Mental Reservation," because things seem to be running a lot smoother with the next album. The band, which was a four-piece for "Mental Reservation" has expanded to six, with the addition of a second guitarist and a keyboardist. Despite the expansion, Axel did almost all the writing himself. That could explain the improvement, as Lee had a hand in every song on "Mental Reservation." This one is power metal straight through, with nothing to slow it down. It's not a concept album, but it has the best lyrics overall. The first track, "Puppet on a String," has Ralf Scheepers (ex-Gamma Ray) handling the singing, and it's an excellent start to the album. It even gets a little epic later on with "Lord Barker's Theme/Ball of the Damned," some of the most interesting stuff Scanner has turned out. Even the Queen cover at the end, "Innuendo" fits in great with the heaviness and speed of the album.