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Thrashers rejoice! Imagika are an American thrash band that means business. It's like Testament and Exodus mated and Imagika came out as their offspring! There is only one thing this album is all about. Mean and murderous riffs! The guitar tone is damn sharp and the riffs are pretty killer; nothing that a thrasher can say no to.

This band is however commonly lumped under the "Power/Thrash" label (which is how I discovered them in the first place) but that really is not the case. First of all, it is pretty much an unwritten iron law that you HAVE to be from Germany to successfully architect that sound. Nobody else seems capable of pulling it off for some reason. Secondly, the only reason why the "Power Metal" label comes in here is because Imagika have this bad habit of excessively raping the double bass drums in every corner that they can. And that ruins some songs on here. The drum work is very reminding of any number of power metal bands and it commonly overshadows the music on here. That is pretty much the only gripe I have with this album.

It is great to see that some bands out there still have the old school formula perfectly fresh in their memories (at least in the riffs and vocal departments). Many tracks here are instantly memorable, but the brilliance demonstrated in the anthemic 8 minute monster "Fade Away" perhaps deserves the crown. Imagine a ballad with regular thrashy razor sharp, full speed riffs, but still somehow magically retaining the "ballad" aspect of it. The chorus is hauntingly awesome on this one. Other tracks are all pretty much fast riff-o-rama thrash attacks with good low and slightly melodic vocals. There is definitely some filler on here however. Anyway… fans of the clean thrash style mixed with some power metal elements should really dig this stuff.