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Arthemis are a long-standing Power Metal band from Italy who don't sound anything like what you'd usually expect from that country. For one, they've got sense, not over-loading their songs with wank or over-blown symphonic tendencies, and not trying to be any more complex than they have to. For another, their style is quite unique as compared to their contemporaries as they peddle out a grounded, almost hard rock-based form of Power Metal with sharp, concise melodies and punchy hooks galore, with the combination of the crunchy, snappy rock guitars and the high, melodic voice of Alessio Garavello being a winning one.

The songs here are mostly of a uniform length, and they all conform to the formula of driving riffs, upbeat melodies, kicking drum beats and choruses so catchy they'll make your blood boil. Perhaps the biggest surprise comes with the seven minute title track, which is...well, it's still pretty much the same as the shorter songs, funnily enough. The album's only real flaw is that the opening track "Fright Train" is the best song on this thing, with just about the stickiest hook I've heard all year, and you will still be singing the chorus to that one when you're trying to rock out to the rest of the songs - which contain some gems too with the bouncy "Electri-Fire" and the stirring "Escape" being the highlights of the pack.

I like this album a lot, actually, and it's nice to see a long-standing band pump out material that is both enjoyable and original as compared to the rest of the dreck being churned out right now. Arthemis were aiming to get you singing along and pumping your fist to this album, and I'll be damned if they didn't succeed. This album has pretty crappy cover art, but the band busts out a nice set of rocking tunes to exercise or jam out to, so pick Black Society up soon if it sounds like your thing.