{"id":534526,"date":"2026-03-13T21:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T21:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/534526\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T21:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T21:28:09","slug":"angus-mcsix-angus-mcsix-and-the-all-seeing-astral-eye-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/534526\/","title":{"rendered":"Angus McSix – Angus McSix and the All-Seeing Astral Eye Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"When last we saw the mighty power metal heroes of Angus McSix<\/a>, they were a fledgling group with a noble aim and a mighty quest: the titular starlord offered promises of adventure and whimsy, with epic aims and a glorious future that had nothing whatsoever to do with Gloryhammer, thank you for asking. Angus McSix could do no wrong on his epic trajectory. Then Thomas Winkler (vocals and the titular Angus McSix) opted to leave the band after their debut, so now McSix\u2019s brother Adam (Samuel Nyman, Manimal) will lead in his stead. So that was a surprise. Still, I have nothing against a new hero, so, like Adam himself, I\u2019m happy to roll with the punches and see what Angus McSix have up their sleeves for their descriptively-titled sophomore, Angus McSix and the All-Seeing Astral Eye.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, the core of the Angus McSix sound is pretty much the same. Nyman even sounds uncannily like Winkler on vocals, and the band\u2019s approach to \u201cjoin our D&D session, the drinks are already here\u201d metal is largely unchanged. It\u2019s a fairly open session too; joining Angus McSix are Rhapsody of Fire (\u201cI Am Adam McSix\u201d), Van Canto (\u201cDig Down\u201d), Turmion K\u00e4til\u00f6t (\u201cTechno Men\u201d), and Freedom Call (\u201cThe Power of Metal\u201d). Winkler himself makes a brief appearance in opener \u201c6666\u201d for just long enough to say \u201chelp me brother, for I am trapped in a block of ice\u201d and pass the torch to Adam. It\u2019s a big number too, with exactly the kind of over-the-top, bombastic chorus and structure that made Angus McSix and the Sword of Power such a great album. It seems at first that Angus McSix has not missed a step; they pick up exactly where they left off, which is fine by me.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the rest of the album is not so consistent, with the songwriting oscillating between classic Angus McSix and shakier ground. In particular, the guitars are pushed way back in the mix. The keyboards are similarly brought way up, and, in contrast to the previous album, focused on synths rather than orchestrations, giving several songs a vague \u201900s-dance-pop-meets-power-metal feel. \u201cTechno Men,\u201d for example, plays to the industrial metal feel the Turmion K\u00e4til\u00f6t singers bring to the song. The chorus, however, is classic Angus McSix, with Nyman singing his heart out on catchy vocal melodies this band does so well. Still, without a strong guitar presence\u2014and the drums don\u2019t pack much punch either, I\u2019m sad to say\u2014a lot of Angus McSix and the All-Seeing Astral Eye feels passive. \u201cI Am Adam McSix\u201d and \u201cDig Down\u201d are good examples of this; in both songs, Angus McSix slow things down a bit, but only the latter one brings the energy needed to maintain an adventurous feel. This poppier Angus McSix can be a little hit-or-miss.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

One of said misses was really unexpected: contrary to their debut, it feels like Angus McSix are trying to be funny. Many of the narrations are intentionally silly; at one point, a narrator describes Adam\u2019s aims as \u201cutterly impossible,\u201d \u201ceven more impossible,\u201d and \u201call in all, a rather questionable plan, except it wasn\u2019t even a plan\u201d (this all from \u201cThe Power of Metal,\u201d an otherwise strong song that would be at home on an Avantasia record). Songs like \u201cOrk Zero\u201d embrace the inherent silliness of Angus McSix\u2019s storytelling without overtly acknowledging it and largely succeed; when they do, it falls flat. I love the story of the uber-ork with a heart of gold, but why do Van Canto comment of Adam, \u201chonestly, his tune is really catchy\u201d? Does the phrase \u201corkish mumbo jumbo\u201d have to appear at all? These feel like unneeded distractions from a group that actually does storytelling fairly well.<\/p>\n

There are great moments and baffling moments on Angus McSix and the All-Seeing Astral Eye. I strongly believe we need more fun in metal and adore Angus McSix for their success in that department. But I feel they missed a step here, leaning too far away from solid songwriting and too much into on-the-nose humor. I remain fully in Angus\u2014and Adam\u2014McSix\u2019s corners, and will be back for the next chapter. But I hope things will feel more like they did back in the day.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Rating: 2.5\/5.0
DR: NA | Format Reviewed: Crappy STREAM!
Label: Napalm Records<\/a>
Websites: angusmcsix.bandcamp.com<\/a> | facebook.com\/angusmcsix<\/a>
Releases Worldwide: March 13th, 2026<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When last we saw the mighty power metal heroes of Angus McSix, they were a fledgling group with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[17736,43409,65450,209280,209281,49,48,75,209282,209283,28511,209284,203837,341,41429,17746,208,209,209285,136362,209286,209287],"class_list":["post-534526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-2-5","tag-43409","tag-angus-mcsix","tag-angus-mcsix-and-the-all-seeing-astral-eye","tag-avantasia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-freedom-call","tag-gloryhammer","tag-international-metal","tag-manimal","tag-mar26","tag-music","tag-napalm-records","tag-power-metal","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-rhapsody-of-fire","tag-symphonic-metal","tag-turmion-katilot","tag-van-canto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}