You’re walking along, minding your own business, seemingly content with your boring, peaceful life, when you notice a bullet train speeding in the distance. You do a doubletake when you realize a motorcycle is racing across the train’s top. Captivated by the grace with which the bike’s leisure-suited rider—who is obviously a Master Spy—jumps the machine from car to car, you’re not prepared for the large explosion that destroys the train’s engine. This sets off a chain reaction that threatens to engulf the rider, and that’s when he throws the bike into a perfectly executed double backflip. He completes the second revolution just as the final train car disintegrates, and as he does so, he slides from the bike’s seat and lands in the driver’s seat of a waiting Lamborghini. Its engine roars to life, just as two black SUVs with armed men hanging from the windows round the corner in pursuit. The Lambo heads towards the coast, presciently avoiding the pursuers’ gunfire, and just when you think the driver has reached a dead end, the Lambo is suddenly propelled upward by rockets, flying out over the water and screeching sideways to a stop atop the deck of an idling mega-yacht. The driver exits the vehicle and is immediately attended to by several dozen women sporting huge 80’s hair and wearing bikinis. The yacht heads off into the sunset.
You turn from this unbelievable spectacle and walk away, no longer content with your miserable, mundane existence, so it’s probably good that you’re not aware that our hero’s day is just getting started. You see, after an evening of revelry with his scantily clad yacht-mates, the Master Spy retreats to a mansion-like cabin that puts your stupid home to shame. There, he begins work on his true passion project: heavy metal. He sleeps only 4 hours per night—he’ll sleep when he’s dead—so he’s free to write tunes until the wee hours of the morning. His first album, The Train, focused on long epics inspired by Iron Maiden’s X-Factor and Virtual XI albums, but this time around, he’s shortening the song lengths, dialing up the speed, and injecting a healthy dose of melodicism by veering sharply into power metal territory. If you were to play album opener and single “Maze Runner,” you’d hear the musical equivalent of the frantic scene you’ve just seen play out before your eyes: explosive rhythms, back-flipping guitars, and rocketing vocals will have you floating upon a sea of power and might.
The Train had some compelling moments scattered throughout its long runtimes, but at six tracks and 30 minutes,1 Maze Runner is basically all killer and no filler. Drawing upon early albums from bands like Blind Guardian, Hammerfall, and Edguy for inspiration, this outing sees Master Spy virtually rewriting their playbook and displaying the it-factor that distinguishes great songs from decent ones. The opening trio of “Maze Runner,” “Challengers of the Unknown,” and “Speed Racer” sets the tone very strongly with a volley of pure power metal, and this momentum never seems to let up, even when mid-paced semi-ballad “Doppleganger” comes along. The latter is so heartfelt and skillful in both composition and performance that it quickly becomes an album highlight.
New vocalist Craig Cairns (also of Tailgunner) aids the project’s transition to power metal with an extremely strong performance, and when combined with new guitarist Christian Vidal (Therion) and his incredible leads, it really feels like Master Spy has amassed an elite level of talent. My primary issue with The Train is gone; where its predecessor had some distracting lyrical foibles, Maze Runner dials this element down to well within power metal’s normal ESL limits. The production suits the music perfectly, leaving room for every instrument while displaying some big-time bottom-end beef. I honestly can’t pick standouts here. All six of these songs are keeping me hanging around like I’m some sort of bikini-clad groupie. I’m deeply sorry for giving you that mental visual.
Maze Runner might be free of the Maiden Virtual/Factor influence that permeated its predecessor, but for my money, this transition to a more straightforward power metal sound is a huge success. Master Spy may not be reinventing the wheel here, but they are grabbing it with both hands and deftly steering this musical Lambo through city streets crowded with landmines and bikini babes. If you like 90s and early 2000s power metal, yacht to love this one.
Rating: 4.0/5.0 – a Virtual IV!
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Self Release
Website: masterspy.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: January 24th, 2025
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