Not knowing this band at all, it came as a shocker when I realised Mystery Blue has been around for 30 years and Conquer The World is their 7th studio album. This french Heavy-Metal band was former in 1982, having released 2 albums and toured with bands such as Saxon, Def Leppard or Motörhead until breaking up. Frenzy, their original guitar player, brought them back to life in 1996 and has been releasing new albums nearly every 3 years, accompanied currently by vocalist Nathalie Geyer, bassist Matt Gabnai and drummer Vince Koehler. This latest album was recorded by Uwe Lulis, from Rebellion and ex-Gravedigger. Conquer the World starts off with a short weird-sounding drum intro that moves into the real song. This is your average heavy-metal song, including classic guitar riffage, double-bass drums and high-pitched melodic singing - a description that will fit the whole album. Most of the songs are uptempo, like following songs Innocent Crime or Running with the Pack and generally well played, but you'll find nothing here that hasn't been done before by every Heavy Metal band back in the 80's. The guitar riffs and solos are nice, and also the bass and fast paced drumming, but Nathalie Geyer's singing turned out to be a huge let down. Her voice is not as impressive as one would expect from a female-fronted band, and not only fails to add interest to the songs but actually takes away some of our interest with her singing style, not too appealing and almost cartoonish at times. I wish she'd tried another approach, less direct and more on the progressive side, I really feel it would benefit the songs and allow us to better enjoy the guitar work and at the same time add a new layer of interest to the compositions. Also, about the lyrics, it's nice to be able to start singing along when you're just halfway the first audition, but they add up to that "I think I've heard this before and it sounded more interesting back then" feeling, so they end up also being too average, sounding corny in their simplicitude. One final remark goes to the production, as I found a little odd the way they made the kick drum sound way above the rest of the drumkit, too high and clear-sounding in comparison, which became a distraction at times. Other than that, everything seems ok. Nothing fancy, but got the job done.

All in all, a pack of so-so compositions and some not-so-interesting lyrics and singing. I know they've been around for long, but there's something wrong when you've been around this long without being noticed, so... sorry guys, this one failed by time for me, so it'll only get rated 45 out of 100.

Rating: 45%