The band's moniker gives a lot away to me as I was a huge fan of the Lynch Mob albums and therefore expectations were heightened before the opener kicked in. Surprisingly the band have a real German feel. It really is METAL! But the unmistakable Euro melody is there when it counts and that's in the choruses.

So what do we have? Ripping metal riffs and solos, with a melodic powerful chorus and vocals that to me sound like a tame Klaus Meine and later turns into Dio then Coverdale. It sounds strange to say it but I can hear the German influence of Accept and even more industrial bands and that really is no criticism. They've got the power and the melody to balance. The deeper vocal melodies add to the higher vocal melodies and bring the hooks home nicely. Not really sounding like Lynch Mob at all? Not really. The blurb mentions Bonfire and I guess that's a real fair comparison.

Robert Soeterboek has a very adaptive voice and changes his approach on the more melodic material here, as first heard on 'Fistful Of Dreams' - more of a classic AOR feel and chorus on this one. It's actually one of my stand out tracks on the album. 'Give It Up' comes next and you can hear Ronnie Dio singing this one, absolutely though I felt the keyboard background should have been a little more upfront on parts as they don't compliment the verse as much as they should.

'Lost In A World' is a kind of bluesy ballad which is fine and it works. The band start to stretch their abilities more as the album goes on and it's demonstrated well here. Again this track really stands out. Back to the more Germanic feel on 'Love To Play' and this comes home to me through the bass drum sound as much as anything else. They sound really great and suit the feel of the song very well. 'Gimme The Night' attempts the blues stomper rock and to their credit they pull it off really well. Probably the most American sounding song on this album and the Coverdale influence comes through in the vocals. I want to say 'standout track' more and more and I think that makes me realise the high quality of tunes on offer here. 'Am I Right' pays homage to Tyketto's 'Forever Young' which is absolutely no bad thing and to me the only real obvious influence on any song here.

I really couldn't pick a fave track from this album. I prefer the more AOR offerings rather than the more German feeling tunes but its all good. A definite worthy addition to any AOR fan, lets hope they do well with it as it's all there just waiting to be enjoyed!

A Blakout rating of 87.1 FM

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