After introducing their new singer Richárd Bánhegyesi with a single earlier this year, Pokolgép’s new album ‘Vissza Sose Nézz’ was announced less than a month before its release. Sure, the Hungarian heavy metal institution was due a new album – the excellent ‘Metálbomba’ being nearly nine years old at this point – but the band deserves a compliment for surprising its fans like this. Especially given the fact that ‘Vissza Sose Nézz’ is an excellent album that finds itself on the intersection of traditional heavy metal and contemporary European power metal. The album confirms that Pokolgép is currently experiencing its second youth.

‘Vissza Sose Nézz’ very much picks up where ‘Metálbomba‘ left off. Founding guitarist Gábor Kukovecz is simply an expert at writing this sort of polished heavy metal that is both highly melodic and very ballsy. The closest comparison would be what Accept has been doing since their most recent reunion, but Pokolgép has more melodic depth and their compositions are notably more varied. That variation is exactly what make ‘Vissza Sose Nézz’ better than most heavy metal albums that are mainly mid-tempo. Also, Pokolgép has really taken their powerful, booming backing vocals to a new level on their last few albums.

It might be surprising that ‘Vissza Sose Nézz’ sounds so similar to ‘Metálbomba’, since the album features a different lead singer. Bánhegyesi does have a similar timbre to his predecessor Attila Tóth in the higher parts of his register, albeit slightly rawer. His lower register, however, has some similarities to how original Pokolgép singer József Kalapács sounded in his younger years. There are also some harmonies where I had to check the credits to make sure my favorite Hungarian metal singer Árpád Koroknai wasn’t guesting on the album. All in all, a vocal upgrade that hasn’t changed the material much, fortunately.

Pokolgép still has some of the catchiest guitar riffs in the scene. The one played fairly high on the neck of ‘Fogadj El’ is probably my favorite one on the album, and the song also has a melancholic, yet hopeful chorus carried by Márk Kleineisel’s effortlessly powerful double bass drumming. Other highlights include the dramatic melodies of ‘Áldomás’, the intense triplet riffing of ‘Tiszta Hitem’, the simple, yet brutally effective title track that opens the album, and the very dynamic ‘Ég Veled’. Both tracks from the single from earlier this year are featured as bonus tracks, of which especially the uptempo ‘Amíg a Tűz Tombol’ is worth hearing.

While ‘Metálbomba’ had slightly higher peaks, ‘Vissza Sose Nézz’ is a consistently great album that many bands half Kukovecz’ age would wish they could make. Kukovecz and fellow guitarist Zalán Kiss have stuffed the album with more great riffs and lead guitar than even some of the bigger international bands achieve in their entire careers, and the songwriting is so memorable and fresh that it never feels like you’re listening to a band well into the fourth decade of its career. Highly recommended to fans of Accept and Judas Priest, but Pokolgép also gives many younger German bands a run for their money.

Recommended tracks: ‘Áldomás’, ‘Ég Veled’, ‘Fogadj El’