After the instrumental opening of "Venite 2.0", the opening track "Your Time Has Come" gallops along at a cracking pace in the best traditions of German power metal, with Kiske's voice invoking memories of his best from past ventures. This is followed by the self-describing "Exceptional", another terrific track where Kiske's vocals are... exceptional.
Guitarists Kai Hansen and Mandy Meyer trade riffs and solos like they have been doing it all their lives. "For the Kingdom" is a perfect example of this, with both playing off each other spectacularly and with speed. They are the highlight of this song. "Not Gonna Take Anymore" and "Night of the Long Knives" continue the excellent voyage of this album, both being mid-range tempo songs which are built on the solid rhythm section blasting along with Kiske riding in the high range of his vocals.
The drumming of Kosta Zafiriou drives along the best songs in brilliant fashion, especially on "Find Shelter", where an otherwise possibly ordinary song is brought to life by his drum work. "Find Shelter" actually combines both fast pace and a slower mid-section surprisingly well, while band leader Dennis Ward's bass lines tie everything together.
"Throne of the Dawn" is energised by Kiske's soaring vocals and the brilliant solo break from Hansen and Meyer again, while "Manhunter" feels like an old 70's rock song reheated and rehashed for the market in 2014, until the harmonic guitars suddenly burst into their individual solos, which busts this song apart for about 45 seconds.
Not everything can be roses and chocolates, and there are songs here that don't meet my complete approval. "Blood" is the kind of song I think Kiske started drifting towards during the mid-1990's, and while you can hear his enjoyment of the song in his vocals (it is also co-written by himself and Sandro Giampietro) it's not one of my favourites. The same can be said for the following track "When the Deed is Done". Both are too much in the power ballad style for my liking, with patented power ballad guitar solo attached. This is also true of the track that closes out the album, "You and I". For me these are the most average songs on the album, the ones that change the tide. As always, there are many people out there who love a good power ballad, and I'm sure they would think these are terrific. On an album that is not great, they just bring it down another notch. On an album I love I can tolerate them.
Whereas Unisonic felt a little uneven and uncertain of itself, with different styles of songs and song writing trying to piece themselves together to make a cohesive album, Light of Dawn has been helmed almost entirely by Dennis Ward, who wrote the lyrics and music for every song apart from the two Kiske/Giampietro songs "Blood" and "Manhunter". On Unisonic, Kai Hansen was involved in writing about half of the album, and the two differing styles which both seem to be trying to appease their lead vocalist didn't gel in the way they would like them to. Here, with Ward shouldering the burden of the actual song writing, but allowing Hansen and Meyer to interpret their solos as they wish, it allows the song structure to flow without bumps, while still showcasing the great talents of these two guitarists. While I may well have enjoyed certain songs from the debut album more (not surprisingly, the one's that Kai wrote), I am positive that this album as a whole is much better than their first effort. As a band, they have produced a much better effort here. The hope from this is that they can continue to do so, because if they can reproduce this improvement again on a subsequent third release, they may well have the formula intact.
Rating: You've made the world your stage, and you know your time has come. 4/5
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