Excellent!

An unflawed masterpiece in my opinion. From the ''weeping'' guitar solos to the powerhouse vocals this is how power metal should and always should be done. While it's on the same emotional wavelength of many of their European peers it lacks the cheesiness many of them aquire. The themes are all relatively serious and add a serious amount of weight to a group of songs that would be fantastic just to listen for fun instead of hearing out for a message.

An underrated band and a criminally underrated album; I think it's on par with anything released from Wintersun, Helloween, Gamma Ray among other heavyweights in the genre-if not even better.

Written by TrollandDie on 05.06.2011 at 23:45

An underrated band and a criminally underrated album

Well said! "My Last Farewell" is my favorite song on the album amidst the masterpiece. Syu has a shredding solo at 3:11.

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn...Japan writes better power metal than its European/American counterparts.

Amazing solos

Written by LeKiwi on 26.06.2014 at 12:31

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn...Japan writes better power metal than its European/American counterparts.

mmm not really. Aside from copying a lot of neoclassical patterns and song structures, the vocalist is annoying most of the time. The solos are great but nothing that cannot be outmatched by European bands.

To me they sound like the Asian Rhapsody.
The highlight for me on this album is definitely those amazing guitar solo's

Written by AndyMetalFreak on 13.01.2022 at 07:03

To me they sound like the Asian Rhapsody.
The highlight for me on this album is definitely those amazing guitar solo's

"Asian Rhapsody"?! That's like an invitation for sarcasm.
Thanks for the warning, I'll stay away from this then.

One of their best albums. Almost every song on this is great - 'Point Of No Return' and 'Heavy Curse' are the standout songs for me though.

The vocalist is the weak link in the band at this point, but he still gives a great performance, you can hear how he has improved over the past couple of albums.