Audio Mixer: Andy LaRocque. Recording information: Trident Studios, CA. Photographer: Dave Lepori.

Recording information: Fang Studios, San Mateo, CA; Fossil Studios, San Jose, CA. Arranger: Imagika. Personnel: Norman Skinner Iii (vocals); Steven Rice (guitar); Henry Moreno (drums). Audio Mixer: Andy LaRocque.

Long-running Bay Area headbangers Imagika have kept the fire burning for dynamic power metal since 1994. Immediately recognizable by the wailing vocals essential to the genre, Imagika nonetheless has some tricks up their sleeves to prevent them from being a cookie-cutter affair. "Behind Immortal" has a pile-driving riff and slower tempo, within which the vocals hang like a dense, icy fog, and the title track's moody melodicism and acoustic guitars resemble Alice in Chains. For the most part, however, this is pedal-to-the-metal American power metal, not as overwrought as its European counterpart, and speckled with thrash grit.

Imagika albums. Devils On Both Sides is the band's 3rd album, produced by Neil Kernon and mixed by Juan Urteaga (Skinlab). Imagika is without doubt one of the most exciting bands to have emerged from the US. Mausoleum. 2005.

Imagika music CDs. Imagika somehow manages to remain faithful to much of the original Bay Area scene's thrash metal teachings without sounding dated. And though not exactly groundbreaking, their pile-driving third effort, And So It Burns, offers highly competent speed metal not unlike that purveyed by modern thrashers Iced Earth. The album even opens in '80s metal fashion, with an acoustic guitar intro slowly building toward the propulsive "Chaos to Murder." The songs which follow aren't all winners, but enough nuggets ("My Dominion," "Hell," the epic "Fade Away") are interspersed throughout the disc to make it well-worth the price of admission. Recommended for old-school thrash fans. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia ;3 Bonus Tracks;S.F. Thrash/Speed Recorded at Praire Sun Studios, Cotati, California. Personnel: David Michael (vocals). Recording information: Prairie Sun Studios, Cotati, CA. Imagika: David Michael (vocals); Steven D. Rice (guitar); Elena Repetto (bass); Henry Moreno (drums). Additional personnel: Michael Dargis (bass); C. Boltendahl, Uwe ...