Hammerfall singer Joacim Cans called together a bunch of prominent musicians from the metal scene and created this heavy metal album. It is easy to get ones expectations up high in the air when seeing people as Cans, Stefan Elmgren, Mat Sinner, Metal Mike Chlasciak and Mike Zonder together on an album. But will such a project live up to expectations?

The album offers pretty straight forward heavy metal, great melodies, a bit progressiveness and yeah great musicianship and great vocals. The compositions are pretty much as expected. Some straight forward and to the bone. Others a bit epic and grandiose. Some a bit more technical and progressive. But the common Denominator is Cans vocals and the eminent guitar play from Elmgren and Metal Mike.

The vocals are more varied and not as power metallish as in Hammerfall. Cans is really showing off his talent and damn the man can sing. The work from the guitar players are over the top and raise the album a notch. The bass and drum work are pretty much as expected from Sinner and Zonder.

I think I expected a more standout record from these guys. It’s a pretty standard heavy metal album, which is lifted by the efforts from the musicians. The song writing is running in classic lines, and there hasn’t been done much to renew the style. That can be taken as both good and bad, though I’m pretty sure a line up as this can pull off an album somewhat better than this. But it is heavy metal and it is well performed and I will listen to it again.

[This review was first published on the now defunct scandinavianmetal.info webzine]