01. Anger Of The Ancients
02. Mirror Shroud
03. Our Last Hope
04. You Die Today
05. Insanity's Call
06. Temptress
07. Fear Is Not Enought
08. Trojan Transmission
09. Strange New World
10. Long Live The New Flesh

Intense hail from the UK and despite the fact they were born during 1991 they just released their second full-length album. They had a long course filled with demos and an EP and they didn't release an album before 2004 when their debut work, "Second Sight", saw the light of day. "As Our Army Grows" continues the pathway on which the band is moving and they unleash their power metal through their compositions.

As the album starts to unfold its soundscapes you start noticing that a big influence of Intense has to be Iced Earth of the Matt Barlow era, even the vocals remind of that Iced Earth period, along with the riffing and the tempo. Oddly though as the album flows and flows these influences start "vanishing" and the overall feeling from dynamic turns to something more epic and melodic, through a heavy prism of course! Through their guitar work the band unleashes its heavy riffing in the air, heaviness and melody pace together through the riffing of Nick Palmer and Dave Peak that burst into beautiful inspired solos from time to time, offering something intense, beautiful and more complex as well when the music asks for it! The rhythm section is always present holding tight the compositions really well and lending them the ideal groove and power, whereas some floating devout keyboard melodies make their appearance from time to time strengthening the epic feeling. And last but not least come the vocals of Sean Hetherington, in the first compositions of the album they resemble a lot Matt Barlow's vocals, but afterwards they tend to have a more personal way of interpreting achieving a more high-pitched melodic way of expression.

"As Our Army Grows" is not the album that will bring a revolution in the world of power metal, but Intense know how to compose and present some really good music of this genre, filled with melody, intensity and epic feeling. Some of the highlights have to be the beautiful ballad "Insanity's Call", the lengthy epic "Our Last Hope", the elegiac and melodic "Strange New World" etc. If you're searching for some good power metal without expecting something original or ground-shaking then Intense could be a possible option for you, listen to them from a friend to find out how they sound like and you'll find something interesting in them, then try them out.

Performance:	9
Songwriting:	8
Originality:	7
Production:	8