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Sigh. The Power Metal genre really isn't in such great shape these days. Burning Point are a pretty well known band, but I had not heard them before this, and all I can say now is that if this is the best they can do, I will not be showing up at any of their concerts in the near future. This is chunky, somewhat heavy Power Metal that sounds like a mold between Shadowland-era Nocturnal Rites and Mandrake-era Edguy, but the thing that surprised me was just how mediocre this was.

Burning Point are competent, and they write some catchy songs, but they have serious songwriting issues, because about half of these songs are twice as long as they should be. Seriously, guys, either cut down on the song lengths or start taking better notes from Iron Maiden on that. And the longer songs (meaning over six minutes) are stretched out only by virtue of seemingly random prog excess, which is terribly out of place with the rest of the album. The other problem at hand here is that the music here just isn't very inspiring. You don't have to be original to make good Power Metal, but you should definitely have some sort of heartfelt oomph to your music if you go down that road, and Burning Point simply don't. They just go through the motions for a solid hour, and while there are shimmering moments of glory, those are few and far between in an ocean of turgid sterility. Burning Point can hold down a solid catchy song, as is evidenced by "Heart of Gold" and "Against the Madness of Time," but those are the only good songs on here, and even so, I think these guys are also-rans. And only on their third album, too. Sad.