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When I first listened to Pyramaze, I remember being mesmerized by the combination of fast riffs and fast keyboards allied with Lance King's high-pitched voice, near-perfect songwriting and a haunting yet energy-filled atmosphere in Melancholy Beast, back in 2004. It was beautiful, inspiring, refreshing, and I sense that we will never see that again in any Pyramaze albums from here on. Following Lance's departure, the band took a different approach and incorporated many of Iced Earth's elements to match the powerful vocal lines of Matthew Barlow, creating something that was somewhat different, but still recognizable as Pyramaze. A 7-year hiatus can either serve as a time to reevaluate the changes made to a band's musical approach, or change it even further. Morten Gade Sorensen, Jonah Weingarten and company did the latter, turning the band into something completely new to their standards. A schizophrenic behavior sometimes tends to distance the band from their fans, if the new material lacks the characteristics that lured them into liking the group in the first place. This many changes can make you wonder if those two gentlemen mentioned above, Morten and Jonah, are simply trying to evolve their sound or just suffer from lack of personality. Whatever is the case, fortunately they know how to create quality Power Metal, regardless if it's just a carbon copy of the other members' works outside the band or a natural evolution to what they used to be.

With that being said, Disciples of the Sun offers little of what Pyramaze was, instead providing the listener with yet again something new, which fortunately turns out to be a good effort. The addition of Terje Haroy on vocals and especially Jacob Hansen (former Anubis Gate and mastermind of Invocator) are definitely the main reason why this second metamorphosis occurred. Heavily inspired on the modern Progressive Power Metal, the album consists of 12 songs, and nearly half of them could be mistaken as Anubis Gate songs. The first song, "The Battle of Paridas", is a mid-paced, heavy tune filled with keyboards and a catchy chorus. The title track, "Perfectly Imperfect" and "Exposure" all have one or some elements of the old Pyramaze, but these are mainly a mix between Pagan's Mind and the aforementioned Anubis Gate, while "Back for More" and "Fearless" show a commercial side of the band that had not appeared before this album.

All in all, this new Pyramaze manages to entertain and satisfy our ears until the end of the album. Definitely not flawless and not the band's best work, but not broken either, this is a good release for 2015. If you manage to get above the comparisons and similarities with other bands of the genre, especially Anubis Gate, you will find Disciples of the Sun fun and catchy.