This is a Norwegian studio project that started in 2007 that features a couple of big names, mainly relating to vocal duty personnel. Graham Bonnet (yep – Rainbow/MSG etc.) and Michael Kiske (Unisonic/ex-Helloween) are the big hitters, the other musicians I am not familiar with although it seems strange that the main songwriters are not listed as band members, maybe I have missed something here? But in any case, such a worldwide studio project is bound to have many different styles right? Not so much, with the songwriters staying in the classic heavy metal vein in search of some epic power metal vocal lines, this fits quite a few people’s shoes. Having spent a considerable amount of time analysing and playing this CD, it comes to me as an album of two halves. This is actually separated by another of those famous ‘Intro’s’. The first half starts out with some excellent arrangements, they really work well, and the expressive and direct talking to the listener in the lyrics is especially prevalent in the beautiful semi-ballad ‘A Song for You’. Starting out slow and emotive, the tempo increases, as does the hold of your attention span. You will continue to get immersed in the other tracks of this half, namely ‘Glass Mountain’ and the epic ‘Ethereal Dream’. Whilst I am not having much luck picking out the individual musicians or vocal contributions, my suspicions are right in my mind, but as I am not sure, that’s up to you the listener to indulge in! Maybe the promo should have this info? All in all, this first “movement” is great.
Then we must come the second half. ‘White Lightening’ bellows into action. Musically, yes, I get it, but the vocals really go too far into the warbling aspect of this genre, you know, like Rhapsody, charismatic yes, but strong and non-sensible, not a chance. I just find this OTT and detracting from the music beneath. There is a cover of Lizzy Borden’s ‘Red Rum’ which is cool, but tracks like ‘liquid Scream’ really don’t help the albums flow, it doesn’t feel natural, it is a combination of ideas but onto one disc. The album cover is also a mystery, that takes a random number (maybe it means something to some folks, I have only found it to be a zip code in Florida – 34613?) shove it on a the number plate of the de-loreon/Back to the Future esq vehicle whilst flying past a rabid man eating beast, yeah I know, far out, but as to what significance this has is a mystery.
For the latter part of this release, this makes it slightly disappointing, but if this were an EP, the first 6 songs are killer metal epics. It may deserve more, but as a complete album, I don’t feel justified giving anything more in my rating. This is however worth a gamble if you are in the market for a CD that has a little piece of everything, but be prepared for a little restriction in the overall album flow.
(6/10, Paul Maddison)

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