Being a music journalist can be a painful occupation, at times. It can be dangerous, for your health and for your sanity. I mean, we do have to listen to an awful lot of dross, which sometimes makes us wonder why exactly we put ourselves through the whole business of doing what we do.... OK, most of the time, it is a fairly pleasant experience and often brings the reward of discovering little gems, which make it all worthwhile....

Unfortunately, this is not one such occasion. Indeed, apart from a fairly workmanlike performance from Tony Mills (yes, the former Shy/current TNT singer), it is very hard to find any redeeming factors in this, the debut release from what is essentially a one-man band based around Greek-born multi-instrumentalist Babis Kaisis.

Things start badly with the downbeat, lacklustre 'Sins Of Mankind': when you want an album to start with a soaring riff and a majestic melody, Kaisis go in completely the opposite direction, with a pedestrian, less-than-mediocre plodder. What follows for the rest of the album is just as bad - below-par songs all delivered at the same pace, and saved only by Mills' vocals (which even then struggle to make the best of the poor material: 'Innocent Cry' features his best performance, and actually is a well-written piece of classical-influenced AOR - but just what in the name of fuck is the atrocious version of 'Jingle Bells', on which Mills sounds like Billy Idol, which immediately follows it, all about?

Honestly, I kept reaching for the skip button, hoping that the next track would be better than what had gone before, but with the exception of the aforesaid 'Innocent Cry', very few if any of the tracks made it all the way to the end, the only other one to keep the attention being 'The Whole Picture', which is the kind of upbeat uproar that should have kicked the album off.

Interestingly, Mills has now been replaced with Heaven's Edge frontman Mark Evans for the follow up album...

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