Swedish Christian metal act
Narnia's fifth album offers more of what their previous releases delivered, a curious blend of '80s-vintage pop-metal and faith-based lyrics. It's like the band were raised in a small locked room with only the recorded works of
Stryper for company, because the most peculiar aspect of
Enter the Gate isn't the fact that this is a Scandinavian metal band not singing of bloody dismemberment, but how utterly state-of-1987 these tunes are. It isn't just
Christian Rivel's vocals, which bear strong resemblance to both
Ronnie James Dio and all of those other '80s metal dudes who sounded an awful lot like
Ronnie James Dio; all of the other tropes of the style, including the
Yngwie Malmsteen-style high-register hammer-on solos and the curiously stiff, swing-free rhythm section, are equally present and accounted for. Even the quasi-classical synthesizers that marred much pop-metal of the era (remember
Europe's "The Final Countdown"?) appear with some regularity throughout
Enter the Gate. Be advised, or warned, depending on one's enthusiasm for retro-poodle-metal.