Admittedly I haven’t been very optimistic about the power metal wave that hit us in the year that just passed. Except for a few obvious choices like that astonishing new Rebellion-album, there was interestingly little appealing and surprisingly many generic albums that were released last year in the sign of power metal. One would think that bands such as Iron Mask would get an easy job capping of a lackluster year, and set the standard for the new one. My expectations weren’t exactly high, even though this is fresh off the mostly brilliant Lion Records label, and god knows it’s better than a lot of stuff that was released earlier. Kicking of with a rather uninventive, yet entertaining slab of 7-minute neoclassical brilliance gets the job done, and should hook you in pretty fast. Symphony X-fans should especially fall in love quickly as this is pretty much the same thing. However, even if it falls in the same category, it is by no a replica. Whenever Dreams brings in that slight hard rock vibe, thoughts drift to Magnus Karlsson’s projects Last Tribe and especially Allen & Lande as the vocalist sounds very similar to both of them yet not as powerful nor charismatic. The guys continue delivering delightful power metal with Forever in the Dark , and in many ways, for the few of you who agree with me that Heavenly is sickeningly overrated, this sounds like them actually completing what they’re trying to do. The classical bits and pieces are not overdone but are mixed in smoothly, and the Gregorian chants are, despite sounding odd, pretty deliberately executed.

There are however numerous traps here, and sadly the guys aren’t able to avoid them completely. The predictable and flat-out boring Resurrection pulls out a huge chunk of the joy they created with the three first. Slow, chugging riffs coupled with bland Arabic-geared melodies reminiscent of Ra’s Dawn only worse creates a spark-less theme. The following Sahara however, despite being pretty straightforward shameless 80’s-worship and potentially a killer track, fuels the fire enough with a sing-along chorus and shredding solos. Continuing down the same path with sparkling tracks such as Black Devil Ship (despite the vocalist’s terrible Alestorm-attempt towards the end of the song) and Only the Good Die Young they lift this a few notches above the average level I couldn’t help but expect from them.

There are however not only upsides to this as there are several tracks that could be mildly described as filler. The song-writing doesn’t always come of as solid, and there is left too much room for poorly produced and sloppy guitar-wanking. Get it done properly if you absolutely must include it in every interlude. The production job is pretty weak too, as there is nothing here that will jump out and kick you in the face. The choir-parts could easily have been more powerful, and the guitar-sound could have been much more distorted and crunchy without causing any harm. All in all this is a solid yet flawed record with a good amount of highlights but sadly a couple of lows that it could easily have done without. Recommended for prog/power/neoclassical enthusiasts. The more casual fan that only care about the best, should be able to find something else to please their desires, though it should be interesting to follow Iron Mask‘s evolution following Shadow of the Red Baron.