In 2005, the two big voiced gentlemen, Norwegian Jorn Lande and American Russel Allen (Symphony X) put their heads together with Swedish songwriter Magnus Karlsson and released their debut album The Battle. That album was a real killer, full of melodic heavy rock and everybody who discovered it seemed to enjoy it. First it was nothing more than a one-off project, but when the result turned out so well, the threesome decided a sequel would be a great idea. Unfortunately, The Revenge (2007) wasn’t even close to match the greatness of the debut. The album felt rushed and it also felt like a case of just releasing an album for the sake of releasing an album. So with that small failure, it wasn’t likely that the guys would team up again for a third round. But they did. And this time they did it well.
That both Lande and Allen are to brilliant and powerful singers aren’t any news, neither that Karlsson seems to have a never-ending ability to write great songs as soon as somebody asks him to. But after the mediocre second album, it sure feels like (good) news that they were able to give us a great third. ”Judgement Day” is great tune with a killer chorus and ”We Will Rise Again” is an awesome track that sounds like Journey goes Metal. Songs like the title track, ”Never Again”, ”Turn Into Gold”, ”Bloodlines” and ”Maya” are all songs with brilliant melodies and catchy choruses. The production is faultless and the singers’ performances are just amazing. This album is a really good one, but there are a couple of tracks that are a bit too weak. Not as good as the debut, but superior to the second one. Had these two gentlemen been big celebrities, this album would have shipped large quantities all over the world. Now it probably won’t do that and that’s a shame, but all of you into heavy rock with a great melody are better off checking this and the debut out.
Jon Wilmenius (7/10)
Tracklist:
01. The Showdown
02. Judgement Day
03. Never Again
04. Turn All Into Gold
05. Bloodlines
06. Copernicus
07. We Will Rise Again
08. The Guardian
09. Maya
10. The Artist
11. Eternity
12. Alias [bonus]
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