The album starts off as brilliantly as one would expect. "Tribute to the Past" and "Last Before the Storm" were both re-recorded later on with Kai singing on Blast From the Past, and to be prefectly honest I prefer those versions of the songs. But the songs as they appear here are still brilliant in their original form. They envelope "No Return" which equals these two songs.
From here I feel the album is just a bit uneven. Two songs are left to other band members to sing - the live favourite "Heal Me" by Kai, and "Your Torn Is Over" by Dirk. Both are good songs, and certainly a change without Ralf's vocals. I'm not as big a fan of "Heal Me" as most other Gamma Ray fans seem to be. I think it's OK but not brilliant.
In all honesty, the remainder of the album I can either take or leave. "The Cave Principle" and "Future Madhouse" are both just average songs and don't really draw any enthusiasm out of me. The Birth Control cover "Gamma Ray" is a novelty by being the same name as the band, but for me isn't that great. "Insanity and Genius" and "Brothers" are probably the better of this group.
This was Ralf's final album with Gamma Ray, and though he has made an excellent fist of his move to Primal Fear, in some way this album seems to suffer from his appearance (or lack of it, according to reports on the recording of the album). It is a pity that his final fling with the band proves to be a little disappointing. The golden age of Gamma Ray began with their following album, Land of the Free. It's funny how I almost missed it, as after this album my adoration of the band went a little cold, and I didn't rush out to find the next release straight away. Imagine if I hadn't! But that was how ths album left me in the long run - a little uneasy, and not really sure if they could recover.
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