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Blind Guardian are what most people call the quintessential Power Metal band, and when you look back at their illustrious career, that is not too far off from the truth. This was their fifth album, and it is not as good as the seminal Somewhere Far Beyond, it is quite a formidable beast in its own right.

This was a transitional effort for the boys from Germany, having the speed and heaviness of their previous efforts combined with a more organized, epic feel than they had ever had before. The funny thing is that this is by far their most unique and individual effort, and especially back in the Metal dark age of 1995, nobody else sounded like these guys. Hansi Kursch's raw, powerful voice is balanced with a gamut of vocal layering, this being the first time they really went over the top with that aspect of it, and the guitars are by far the heaviest and most visceral here than Blind Guardian would ever have again; that muddy, crushing production just rolls right over you like a goddamned steamroller! Not to imply that there is no melody here, though, for that would be a gross lie: the melodies here are elaborate and grandiose, flourished with a slight medieval touch to them that further enhances the music.

The songs here are varied in typical Power Metal fashion, with stomping anthems like the title track and the awesome "Mordred's Song" providing a counterbalance for fast cookers like the blazing, dithyrambic "The Script for My Requiem" and the blistering "Another Holy War," which might just be the very best song here. "A Past and Future Secret" is a little acoustic ballad, and it gets lost in the fray of the more epic and lengthly numbers here, but it's still a fine song.

If you want an album to get you into the Power Metal genre, I would point you straight to this one. It has scorching speed and bombastic power and a whole lot of class to top it off. Go get it now if you have not yet beheld its wonders.