The first time I heard this album, it was like magic. There have been a number of albums that I have known from the first time I put them on that I would always love them, and for me this was probably the most memorable of them. When I finally managed to track down and buy this album, I was in awe of what I heard. It was beyond anything I imagined it could have been. The guitars, the drums, the keyboards, the vocals, the lyrics. Everything was just perfect. It extended from what Helloween and Gamma Ray had been doing, not improving it but taking that as the lead to find the right direction in which to head. The song writing and playing of both Roland and Uli was always likely to be excellent given their past record with Helloween, but without a vocalist of stature in which to bring out the best in the music it was always going to be the difference between a solid outing and a brilliant outing. Jorn is that vocalist, and his performance on this album and also on the follow up is the finest of his career, and really slams the exclamation point on this album.
I'll admit that I don't know for sure, nor have I heard anything from anyone within the people involved, but the lyrics from most of the songs seem to me to directly relate to the separation of the two members from their previous band. It could well have provided the bulk of the material lyric-wise, depending on how you interpret them. Like I said I have nothing to back that up so I could be completely off the mark, but when I read the following lyrics from the album, I'm not sure that it can be anything else:
"I'll never give up - never give in, Won't stop believing cause I'm gonna win, Sing with my soul before I get old, Cause there may be no tomorrow"
"Enlighten me, I wanna see, how this could be the age of reason, won't you tell me, can't you tell me, cause I need to know"
"We held up the metal torch and they tried to take the flame, we've been running against the wall but we always overcame, no sense no reason, we are the ones you love to hat"
"Try to mend your broken wings, Why should we live within a haze"
There are plenty more examples, but again they are all open to interpretation.
From the very beginning, this is an album that highlights the very best that power metal can be. While the keyboards are prominent through the songs, they do not dominate. That is left to the strongest triumvirate within the band - Uli's brilliant drumming, Roland's fantastic guitaring and Jorn's amazing vocals. The opening three tracks are just brilliant. The epic opening track "Spirit Never Dies" bursts through the speakers in a cacophony of speed, guitar, keys and drums, before the silky vocals of Jorn enter the fray. The power of the chorus is just fantastic, and the emotive building to the heavy ending tops off an amazing opening track. This then flows straight into the first single from the album "Enlighten Me", which mirrors the intensity and heavy guitar and drumming from the first track, while reinforcing through its chorus the overflow of feeling some members of this band still felt for certain sections of other bands. Linking directly through the lyrics once again is "Kind Hearted Light", which concludes the Trilogy of musical moments which derive their existence from previous fallings out. It would be a difficult task to find three opening songs on an album that would be better than those found here - the equal yes, but not better.
"Crystal Night" is a heavier song both in riff and with Jorn's vocals, with impact drum beat and guitar riff throughout the majority of the song to emphasise each part. Following this, as an offset, listen to the harmony from Jorn through the bridge of "Soulburn", leading from the heartfelt musings of each verse and into the short chorus. The vocals here are stunning, and the atmosphere created throughout this song is extraordinary, for which the keyboards play a major part. This is followed up by the lighter, brighter and slightly faster "Heroes", which features former Helloween vocalist Michael Kiske on dual vocals. Kiske had apparently been approached initially to be the lead singer of the band in its development, something he declined on the basis of his continued dislike of heavy metal. Kiske adds a breeziness to this track which makes it wonderfully enjoyable, but it is also obvious that could not have sung on this album and done the same brilliant job as Jorn does. It just wouldn't have worked as well as it does, but on this track both singers are great. The faster pace continues on into "Sail On", with double kick and soaring vocals pushing the track on through to the great solo section.
"Into the Light" is perhaps the most derivative of the tracks on the album. It is much slower, and bases itself around Jorn's mournful vocal performance and guitar wailing. I would say it is the least successful track on the album, but then it bursts by way of Roland's solo guitar riff into the brilliant "Crawling From Hell", which blitzes along with fast guitar riff and double kick from Uli, and Jorn's brilliant harmonic vocals through the bridge again. It is one of my favourite tracks on the album. This feeds into "Bleeding Eyes" with its very middle-eastern music style dominated by the atmospheric keyboards and Jorn's amazing vocal range again.
This is as fine a debut album as could ever have been produced. The song writing is superb, and its strength is what builds such a brilliant foundation for the entire album. It lays the platform for each of the band members to then do what they do best, and make their own mark on the album. Certainly Uli's drumming does that as well. I had been a fan of his since his days in Gamma Ray and then Helloween, but his drumming here is so powerful and so proficient. He can play that strong 2/4 timing on snare and toms but be playing an almost completely different beat on the double kick at his feet. When the songs demand it, his double time kick with frills and trills take what would be just an average quiet piece in a song to become his own - listen to the first verse of "King Hearted Light" to hear what I mean. Superb. He doesn't get over-technical in a progressive drumming way, because you can hear him keeping that solid thumping time throughout each song, but he also adds his own tricks along the way that make it so much more special. He is a gem. Roland's guitaring does the same in effect. Because the writing is so good, and the rhythm section is so solid (and Roland played the majority of the bass guitar on this album before they hired anyone), he can not only lay his rhythm guitar tracks down, but allow himself his freedom in the solo sections to really showcase his talents. While he was able to do this to a certain extent during his Helloween days, here he has a fuller reign as one of the senior members of the writing group and band, and it really shows. Backing all of this up is the unbelievable job done by Jorn on vocals. They are not only sensational, they convey the emotion of a track when needed, enhancing the music and lyrics around him in his voice. He can reach those high notes when he needs to, as his range is excellent, but it is his ability to bring out the emotions of the song that help to make this album what it is. He can be light, dark, heavy or thoughtful, all without compromising the mood of the song - in fact only illuminating it.
For me this is one of the best albums of the new millennium. It ticks every box and is a standout in an era when metal was expanding in some markets and contracting in others. While many bands and fans were gravitating towards a more aggressive, tuned down growling style of metal, this album at the time proved to me why the ability to be able to sing melodically, and play instruments in a traditional melodic heavy way was still more important to me than anything else.
Rating: I know what it means to burn, that's how I begin to learn. 5/5
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