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This is a cool surprise from Cruz Del Sur, who have become one of the best labels for traditional Heavy Metal with bands like Atlantean Kodex and Slough Feg on their roster. This is actually the second full-length for Dark Forest, a UK band who show tremendous potential.

This is just a solid, catchy Heavy Metal album. Dark Forest have a galloping, melodic riff style that of course recalls Maiden, but they have a direct and heavy touch that almost sounds like US Metal, bringing to mind bands like Steel Prophet as well as a touch of almost Hellenic True Metal like Lonewolf or Battleroar's first album. Standout songs include "The Tor" and the compulsively hooky "Stars My Destination". The playing is solid if not showy, and singer Will Lowry-Scott has a good voice, with enough power and range but without really delivering a standout performance. If this band has a failing, it's that there is nothing they do really extraordinarily well – they write good songs, play them well, and have a good production job, but they don't really wow with any one feature. Sometimes that's worth more to me than a hundred gimmicks.