A massive step forward - A review of Lovebites' Glory, Glory, to the World

Dynamic Japanese symphonic power metal quintet Lovebites is back with an extended play entitled Glory, Glory, to the World one year after its last full length effort Electric Pentagram. This record offers five new tracks with a total running time of twenty-eight minutes. The five power women have been quite active in the past fourteen months with the release of the studio record, a single with four tracks, two live albums and this extended play.

When listening to the last studio album, the band's extremely fast musicianship was quite exhausting with twelve songs and a total running time of seventy-one minutes. This extended play is a step in the right direction in many ways. First of all, five songs are much easier to digest than twelve. Secondly, the band focuses more on melodies than speed on this output. This gets obvious in the epic atmospheric overture, the balanced, confident and skillful vocal performance and the catchy, distinctive and memorable chorus of the title track. Fans of old date will however still get their pitiless rhythm section and enthusiastic duels between guitar and keyboard solos.

The songwriting has overall become more varied on this output. ''No Time to Hesitate'' starts as a gloomy heavy metal track that slowly speeds up and gets to the point in only four minutes. ''Paranoia'' starts with an extensive orchestral overture of cinematic dimensions before the power metal madness unleashes.

The best songs on this release are however the final two. ''Dystopia Symphony'' finds the perfect balance between gritty guitar riffs and harmonious keyboard melodies recalling the strongest moments of European power metal bands such as DragonForce, Sonata Arctica and Stratovarius about two decades ago. The closing ''Winds of Transylvania'' has only been included on some versions of this release but might be the greatest tune here. The vocals and riffs sound rather serious while the uplifting melodic guitar and keyboard solos are performed with a perfect balance between passion and skills. The chorus is addictive and grows with every spin, making this tune an excellent single candidate.

I didn't expect much from Lovebites' Glory, Glory, to the World but this more balanced, harmonious and profound extended play is a massive step forward for the talented female symphonic power metal quintet. The band shortened its songs, improved the songwriting and reduced the speed to create five very good songs that are given the opportunity to breathe, grow and impress. The production also sounds improved and is less of a loudness war than on the preceding studio record. This extended play is a wonderful surprise and might be the best release in the band's discography so far, I'm looking forward to listening to the quintet's future works and hope the ladies will keep the winning formula of this output going.

Final rating: 83%