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Dragonland have had a career that defines "uneven," with their first two albums being straight-up Swedish Power Metal, then taking a swerve into Prog/AOR for the next few discs, and then back to fantasy-themed Power Metal for Under the Grey Banner. Now, over a decade after that one, we get their sixth album, this time with a sci-fi theme. This is not really the same band by now, as only singer Jonas Heidgert remains from the original lineup, and half the band is recent replacements.

I have had affection for this band for a long time, as I thought their early works were better than the generic Power Metal common at the time, and while they lost me in the middle period, Under the Grey Banner was a flawed but highly enjoyable album. I was curious to see where they were now.

Stylistically this is pretty much the same as the last album, with well-produced, glossy Power Metal being the order of the day. This is a bit more keyboard-heavy and with less emphasis on guitar riffs, but Heidgert's ear for melodies is as good as ever, making for rousing and anthemic choruses. There may be no songs on here to equal "A Thousand Towers White" or "Durnir's Forge," but they are all at least good, and we don't have the ridiculous vocals of Fred Johanson to mar the proceedings this time out. The only real flaw in the album is that there are a lot of songs on here, and they don't have as much identity as they should, so the whole album does tend to kind of run together. It's fun while it's on, and you will remember a lot of melodies and hooks, but not really any songs. Still, if you like this band, or you like Swedish Power Metal in general, this is absolutely an album to check out.