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One of the most exciting talents to emerge in recent years, New Jersey's Operatika have finally decided to showcase their enormous potential for global consumption, and after their much lauded first demo, the US quintet have at last pieced together their debut album; an album that with any luck will knock Nightwish off their undeserving perch of power for good.

Operatika, while undoubtedly taking influence from the band's early years, is far from the Nightwish clone many would suspect. In fact, The Calling has more in common with the heady school of fantasy Power Metal that spawned Stratovarius, Helloween and even Symphony X – hell, their bassist Michael LePond covers all bass duties on the album - with the majority of their efforts coming across like a female fronted Rhapsody on speed. Sounds incredible, right? Well, at times it is. The band's highly neo-classical leanings often confuse the line between what is possible and normally expected from the yanks, but this does nothing to diffuse what is an awesome catharsis of energy and panache. Vocalist Slava Popova has the operatic soprano nailed – as well as the requisite physical appendages, something she shares with her alluring keyboard player Anna Dok – but the real star of the show is guitarist Bill Visser, whose Yngwie-esque sweeping and chunky riffing makes songs like the catchy "Dark Horizon", the upbeat "Life Saving Flame" and the battle-hardened opener "Gladiator" so full of inspired wisdom.

Some minor gripes aside – the fishy production for one – The Calling is possibly the best female-fronted Metal album I've heard this year, and if Nightwish think they're gonna be at the top of the pyramid much longer, they've got another thing coming.