I think what they tried here was to make less in your face intense heavy metal, go more subtle direction and focus on songwriting. When Face to Face works it's great, but there are also few songs that miss the mark. If the first album was inspired by Motörhead, Saxon, Savage, etc. then this is more like Savatage, Dio, Cloven Hoof and maybe Accept with some speed metal edge. A good effort, but not a masterpiece they had probably hoped for.