Sweden’s Enforcer, I can’t believe it has been 4 years since their last one ‘From Beyond’ of which I thought was a world dominating effort. So when this album landed, there’s an easy choice for me. But wait a minute; I am really thrown with this. Enforcer slows down and goes more mainstream metal! Don’t panic just yet, there’s a touch of The Scorpions prevalent in opener ‘Die for the Devil’, but you are in for a change of pace.

There is a level of maturity and a case for artists focussing their talent for a much wider audience, therefore I lead you to the talents of vocalist Olof Wikstrand. He gives a vocal performance of his life for the sensational ballad ‘Regrets’. The melody, the power and the overall stance of the song, wow, just wow, goosebump central. I feel it can be almost as emotive as some of Michael Sweet’s (Stryper) ballad performances. Of course, this is one other reasons for my surprise; they’ve captured their art of hooks and melody without the speed that you may have previously associated with Enforcer. It started with the album ‘Diamonds’ 9 years ago, but they have developed their talent here.

That said, the speed returns on ‘Searching for You’ (of which you can find online sung in another language) and ‘Thunder and Hell’, the latter harking back to their speed metal beginnings. We may be back in safe waters, but I am still stunned by the overall change in pace of the band. The quality of the presentation…food for thought I reckon. ‘One Thousand Years of Darkness’ is never far enough from a description, this is so catchy, you almost get into typical power metal and then onto the almost epic metal of ‘The End of a Universe’. This album is full of twists and turns and pure imagination.

I did say to myself when I first played this that I was really not sure if I liked this change of stance, but actually, as you delve more into it, yes, I get it, it’s very high quality, but I can see this album is going to split opinion, I really do. It’s the surprise knowing Enforcer’s discography.

Fans of old will be surprised, don’t say you were not warned, but I will tilt my cap to the fine delivery and record this band have put out, no matter what sub-genre the band have evolved into.

This is a marmite album; you will either love it or hate it. I originally didn’t, now I am a believer, “fear my evil cause I do”, it’s certainly not evil, it is a great melodic album.

(8/10 Paul Maddison)

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