What an unexpected, yet truly amazing slab of metal this was to have land in my inbox!! Epic Keyboards, Maiden-like Melodies, Soaring Clean vocals, Layered death metal vocals, Wicked lead guitarwork, Amazing drumwork, Solid structuring, etc. There are so many random elements of so many sub-genres of metal all flawlessly meshed together......This album is near perfect.
It's in the lyrical content that it gets tricky. The lyrical themes seem to be extremely open to interpretation, but at the same time, there appear to be noticeable "xtian" leanings in select songs. However, there are other songs that are almost completely contradictory to what a band would be likely to write if they were in fact of a specific xtian faith. The vague lyrical content makes it increasingly hard to tell.
In spite of that, the cleverly catchy pop strutctured choruses wrapped inside a more complex guitar-oriented thrash metal framework definitely puts this album over the top! It also brings to mind All That Remains' 'The Fall of Ideals'.
And of course, some might question why any kind of religious leaning makes a difference......and to that, the only possible answer that can be given is the classic, "If you have to ask, you'll never know."
Outside of that rather small detail, this album is practically flawless.
