Time Signature Silver eyes...

Genre: traditional metal

Masterclastle's 2011-album "Dangerous Diamonds" was pretty good, offering up tasty heavy metal with elements of power metal and compellingly powerful vocals by Giorgia Gueglio.

So, can they follow up on the artistic success that was "Dangerous Diamonds"?

Well, not quite, I think. "On Fire" strikes me as being a bit lackluster. The musicianship is still there, and there is still plenty of guitar action and blazingly acrobatic guitar solos and neoclassicisms, and Giorgia still shows that she is a very suited front-woman for the melodically oriented metal that the band represents (she also designed the nice cover artwork, by the way).

But, compared to its predecessor, this album just seems too laidback for my taste (both in the instrumental demartment and in terms of the vocals).

We are still dealing with solid and enjoyable melodic metal, and I would not go as far as saying that the album is not a good one. It has a lot of qualities, such as memorable chorus lines, and the highly enjoyable 'Silver Eyes', 'Quicksilver', 'The Final Battle', and 'Titanium Wings' do have the energy that has made previous Mastercastle releases so enjoyable.

On the whole, "On Fire" is an enjoyable metal album with plenty of highlights and good moments, and fans of melodic metal in particular are likely to enjoy it.