Well what first strike when I listened to the CD is : The power of the production ! Crisp and clear it grabs you right away and you just want to listen to it and devote all your attention into it. The first song is very nice (after a poor introduction), unfortunately the chorus doesn't hold up to the excellent riffs contained in the verses. Anway it's a cool song. Second songs start with a nice guitar melody and is of another style than the first one. Up to this point I can say I like the music pretty much, and same for the singer, he's good. This one (Hall Of The Mountain Kings) reminds me somehow of a Ken Ziner song in it's structure and feeling. The third song again start differently than the 2 first ones, seems the guys are making a demonstration of the variety of songs they can write and so far it's paying of. Completely different style of singing as well on this bass driven song, and the result is pretty good, another good song !

The recipee continues and the next song changes again in rythm and melodies. It seems it gets in every direction somehow, and this song is again a very good one, except for the chorus that somehow hold the song back, too bad. Up to this point things start to change in a bad way if you ask me. Cause even though you have a new style with every single songs to the end, it seems you get NOTHING new or nothing you've already heard before, but only that the songs are never as good as what they remind you of when you listen to them. Unfortunately I got pretty quickly tired of them.

That's too bad cause technically speaking this is very good and the production kick ass ! but something is missing, perhaps some Blacksmith's spirit, I dunno ! The variety of songs is amazing, but you can't find a connecting line between them and perhaps that's the problem with this release. I mean you've got like Ken Ziner, GammaRay early years, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Winger and the list goes on and on, but when you compare the songs to these bands you say to yourself : "okay but I like the others better !". So for next release let's hope for some originality and Balcksmith's home made sound.