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Raided Land is the fourth full-length from Germany's Human Fortress and my first go-round with the band. Power Metal of the Italian school, with plenty of keyboards, major chord progressions and a few folk elements, is the name of the game. You won't find a note out of place as the band goes on about the typical Power Metal themes of fantasy, times of yore, etc. Normally, I like this kind of music pretty well but I can't seem to find much on Raided Land to latch on to. There are double-kick drums, clear vocals (that remind me of Hibria quite a bit), big choruses and the like but none of it gels. It may be that the songwriting is unimaginative or that the aforementioned major chords don't seem to fit the lyrics. When the vocalist wraps up the chorus on "The Gladiator of Rome (Pt. II) with the line "the arena is my home, my life, my hell" I want a mournful and visceral punch from the guitars and keyboards but what I get is nice, fluffy major key resolve, costing the line any sort of dramatic impact. That seems to be a common theme on Raided Land and with nothing else above what you might expect from a Power Metal band, the album ends up being memorable only for the things I didn't like. It isn't intentionally bad and the playing is tight, but that's about all Raided Land has going for it. That isn't exactly a recipe for success.