Well, despite Fifth Angel’s infamous history, and their ‘fallout’ with founding guitarist James Byrd, the band still did enough to release a second album, and this time, delivered on schedule.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Fifth Angel
ALBUM: Time Will Tell
LABEL: Epic
SERIAL: 45021
YEAR: 1989
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Ted Pilot – vocals * Kendall Bechtel – lead guitar * Ed Archer – rhythm guitar * Ken Mary – drums * John Macko – bass
TRACK LISTING: 01 Cathedral * 02 Midnight Love * 03 Seven Hours * 04 Broken Dreams * 05 Time Will Tell * 06 Lights Out * 07 Wait For Me * 08 Angel Of Mercy * 09 We Rule * 10 So Long * 11 Feel The Heat
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
Well, despite Fifth Angel’s infamous history, and their ‘fallout’ with founding guitarist James Byrd, the band still did enough to release a second album, and this time, delivered on schedule.
It was the summer of 1989 when ‘Time Will Tell’ found the record shelves, with Epic Records and longtime Rush producer Terry Brown in the producers chair, doing the honour’s. Fifth Angel had released an immense debut album. Recorded in 1986, but the band and management were shuffled around like deck-chairs on the Titanic.
Eventually given a major-label release two years later, the impetus was lost, Fifth Angel were back-pedalling from then on. Still, ‘Time Will Tell’ is a half-decent record I’ll give them that, commercial melodic metal with a lot going for it, surprising to say.
The Songs
‘Cathedral’ opens Fifth Angel’s account, and to say they sound like Ratt is an understatement. Don’t think of this as demeaning. It’s an excellent track, and leads well into the rest of the album. Second up is ‘Midnight Love’ riffs away unabashed, galloping along like the four horsemen, topped by a great chorus that only the 80’s could’ve dreamed up.
‘Seven Hours’ continues the melodic metal goodness to a tee, ‘Broken Dreams’ which follows next is the album’s ballad moment (an excellent one at that), the album reaching critical point with the title-track ‘Time Will Tell’ (another Ratt doppelganger) and the heroic cover of U.F.O‘s ‘Lights Out’.
Fifth Angel step it up on ‘We Rule’ a Whitesnake like rip-snorter a la the John Sykes era, while ‘So Long’ drops back into power ballad territory, taking a breather in the process.
In Summary
Two ballads, the rest are full-on rockers. You can add ‘Time Will Tell’ to the list of excellent 1989 recorded albums, but this would be the end of the line for Fifth Angel as a band during this era, though they reformed nearly three decades later.
Ken Mary would record with House Of Lords and his own band Soul Shock Remedy while John Macko played with Norwegians TNT during the early 90’s. A good CD, hopefully you can pick it up cheap somewhere on Ebay.
Video
Time Will Tell
Cathedral
Entire Album (Select Tracks)
