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For my money, Ignitor have never lived up to the promise of their debut. Take to the Sky was a melodic, catchy disc full of old-school metal that had a definite kick of NWOBHM flair. Each of their subsequent albums has been less and less memorable, and the songwriting just does not seem to have made the leap. The individual riffs and leads are good, but the songs as a whole just don't hold together.

The big drawback is really frontman Jason McMasters, who has somehow acquired the reputation of a great singer when he's not one. When he replaced original wailer Erika Swinnich the band lost a step and never got it back. Originally McMasters made his bones in Texas tech-proggers Watchtower, then he jumped ship to go sing for cock-rockers Dangerous Toys and only came crawling back to real metal when the glam pool dried up. In his youth he was a perfectly good singer, but now he just sounds awful, and his thudding, dull vocal lines do a lot to ruin Ignitor's music. He spends most of this album sounding like he can't find a note, and I find it just painful to sit through.

So here we have the seventh album by a band who should be much better than they are. But tepid songwriting and bad singing make for a disc that is not enjoyable at all.