What an excellent debut album by the Finnish prog metallers Constantine. The band has done their homework and they play together very tight despite the complex nature of the music. Often with progressive metal the letdown are the solos and over technical passages that bore anyone except the musicians themselves, but this is not the case here. Although almost all songs clock over eight minutes, there is no feeling of overstretching the songs, they work in their whole.

Even though some of the songs suffer from a bit weaker vocal melodies (A Change in the Tide especially) the songs are strong troughout the album and the whole package is worth listening. The instrumental work is fantastic and make up for the few less good vocal parts, especially the drumming is world class.

The personal favourites would be The Shadow Within (only song under eight minutes here), Through the Veil of Death and the monumental The Darkest Grace (a fan favourite here in Finland amongst the relatively small fanbase).

If progressiveness doesn't scare you, please listen to this album. I personally think that Constantine is too good to be such an unknown band, so try it out!

Dear god is this album good. The late Gary Moore's contribution to this Lizzy album succeeded above great, forging one of the very best Thin Lizzy albums of their carreer. From the melodic and energetic opener "Do Anything You Want To" through chill and laid back "Sarah" and the all too prophetic "Got To Give It Up" to the magnificent and elegantly folkish closing track "Roisin Dubh (Black Rose)", this is Thin Lizzy delivering the goods they're known for. That being ofcourse the tight "band-sounding" playing by the whole band, awesome twin-guitar attack, thought-provoking lyrics and soulful singing of Phil Lynott and the sheer melodiness of it all.

Many fans consider this the band's best offering, and one can see why. The album is consistent throughout, every song has it's place on it and the production is crystal clear. Every song on the album has great guitar parts, wheter its a twin guitar melody or a blistering solo by Gary. And man do I love the groove laid by Lynott and Downey, very precise playing, yet still at the same time highly interesting and creative. Especially nowadays I would like to see musicians like this: doing their part in a band but never stepping too much into the spotlight and at the same time on the toes of the song.

The whole album has a cheerful energy to it, and it sure brings a smile to my face every time I listen to it. The music is very delicate and well thought up and the songs gel well together. It's hard to pick out favourite songs on this one (which is always a good thing), but I've always had a soft spot for "Sarah". It has a very nice "by the fireplace"-feel to it and the guitar and vocal melodies are just stunning. And you can't write a review about this one without mentioning the hit "Waiting for an Alibi" with it's catchy chorus and, again, sublime twin guitars by Gorham/Moore.

The last song is arguably one of the best Thin Lizzy tunes on any album. Clocking up to seven minutes in length it is an Irish traditional meets rock-fiesta and really showcases the abilities of Gary Moore with a lengthy guitar part in the middle.

It's not a very heavy album, so pure metal thrashers might find it a tad too bit lame, but if you're into hard rock or the here labelled "proto metal" you should hear this one. Simply. Amazing.

At first I didn't get this band. They were described and hailed everywhere as a great NWoBHM/traditional Heavy Metal act that kicked ass in live shows and also on record. I tried to get into the music a couple of times on their MySpace-site, but never really got that much interested. Everything was basically just the way it should be, but I felt that it missed something.

Then at the time of the release of their second album Diamonds the album was availible as a free download for a day or something, and I thought that now I'm giving them the last chance by listening to a whole album. Then in the small hours of the night I understood the hype surrounding the band: the opening song Midnight Vice caught me by the throat and I was shocked. This sounded a bit like the early Maiden, really hungry, vital and full of energy. Even the intro reminds me of Maiden's Ides of March which I always fancied.

The first song of the album is still probably my favourite off of it, but most of the material is following close behind. There are many speedish-sounding pieces here: Roll the Dice, High Roller, Live for the Night... they all have very 80's sounding riffs and soaring clean vocals and the soundscape is also leaning heavily to the eighties. It's actually quite pleasing to hear a heavy metal record made in the 2000's where you can hear the bass clearly. To accompany the sheer kick-ass fast paced tracks we have some slower and more epic stuff such as Katana, which has a great chorus and a nice mid-song build up that explodes into some fantastic guitar work.The record is quite even throughout, no fillers or clear bad tracks.

The length also bows to the vinyl ages, for it only runs for about 40 minutes in total. This makes it easier to listen than say Iron Maiden's newer albums which normally clock over an hour. So if you're interested in classic-sounding traditional heavy metal filled with furious and energetic tracks, you should definently check this one out. Friends of Killers or The Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden should not be dissapointed.

Oh yeah, almost forgot, the song Walk With Me is (besides being an amazing and atmospheric song) based on the famous tv-series Twin Peaks. So that's another thumbs up for these Swedish fellows!