Kev Rowland I must say that the album cover looks better the smaller it is, as when it is a reasonable size it looks like a very poor cut and paste affair – just as well that the music more than makes up for it. Black Majesty have long been seen as one of Australia’s top power metal bands, and here on their seventh studio album they show exactly why they are regarded in that fashion. They have obviously been heavily influenced by the likes of Angra and Helloween, never a bad thing in my book, and musically the guys are hitting it out of the park. The rhythm section powers it along, which allows the twin guitarists to duet, solo or crunch as the need arises. Where it suffers for me is with the vocals. John "Gio" Cavaliere has been there since the very beginning, and has quite some reputation, but there is the impression that he is struggling here. There are times when he seems to be somewhat out of sync with the rest of the guys, and this isn’t helped by a production that has kept him towards the rear of the sound, which I don’t understand at all. That he can still hit the notes is never in doubt, it’s just that at times the band just doesn’t sound like a complete unit.

That isn’t always the case however, and songs such as “Hideaway” shows a band that is firing on all cylinders (although the vocals are still too low in the mix). All in all, this is a real hit and miss album, which isn’t what one would expect from a band that have been strutting their stuff on the world stage for as long as they have. This just isn’t consistent enough for me, although pure power metal fans may well disagree.