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Zandelle aren't exactly well known here in the UK. A group of friends and I were driving back from the recording studio one dreary afternoon, slipping in and out of habitual neurotic comas and frustrated anguish, when I offered a little music to cheer us up. A little album I had bought a couple of months before. That album was Twilight on Humanity, and I've never heard a group of grown men laugh so hard in my life.

Their third excursion outside of menial existence, Twilight on Humanity marked the signing of Zandelle to the venerable Limb Music, a label notorious for its roster of wimps-and-posers metal defenders. The straight for the jugular approach to opener "Warlords of Steel" defines the genre like a sword swipe to the skull. Huge choirs, galloping drums, harmony guitars, heroes-and-villains lyrical content; the whole nine yards. Zandelle are Power Metal right down to the cod piece and helm. Although not even racing with the overblown sentiments of their European equivalents, Zandelle play rather wild US Power Metal, spliced with Blind Guardian-esque storytelling and Helloween flavored celerity. Ex-Gothic Knights vocalist/bassist - and somewhat metal luminary - George Tsalikis stays firmly in the upper range, wailing over the pounding riffage and fervent double bass drumming with literary genius such as Welcome to a land where fairies dwell and mighty dragons fly/Where dwarven smiths make swords of steel and castles touch the sky. Let's just say ole' George will be getting some, come Saturday night.

Musically, Twilight on Humanity is a very fine collection of speedy, heavy riffs, shredding solos and solid drumming, accented by the crushing production and powerful execution. The melodies are a tad tiresome at times, although "Lord of Thunder" and the Helstar-like "Immortal Realms" are essential Power Metal fodder. Despite preferring my Power Metal in the European school, Zandelle are worthy additions to the ream of superlatives explaining what fantasy metal should sound like, if that ridiculous pigeon hole were ever to legitimately surface. Fingers crossed.