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Second album for those Swedish power metallers. Already I can hear a more distinct sound on this album, although still a bit too "standard" really be called original (but some of the material here is definitely more original-sounding than on the debut album.) The production problems I noticed on the debut are also gone, it is a lot better on this release.

Overall the songs here are in the same vein as on "Words of Nostradameus" - fast, powerful, good number of choirs - sometimes a bit too much but what the hell, at least they do it right, and they sound better than on the first album. The riffs are a bit more distinctive and catchy this time around, and beside the production this is the most major improvement I see here. The band seems to have incorporated more influences from "pure" heavy metal and therefore the sound is less of a generic power metal. They also don't overdo the double bass drums, the drumming following the melodies a lot better that way.

The vocals are strong and well-controlled, the vocalist has a good range and has no problem holding either the lower or higher notes.

This sophomore release shows a definite improvement over the first album in just about every points and it'll be interesting to see if they can improve on originality in the future (not an easy thing in this genre nowadays). This is a step in the good direction as only a few songs really have a "generic" sound. I did like the first album and like this one even more. Highly recommended to power metal fans.