Fans of "Black Album" Metallica will probably like this.

Review Score: (8/10)
My god, the hyperbolic reviews about this album! As a "veteran" metal fan, who has been trying to catch up on what's been going on "lately," I finally decided to give this vaunted album a spin. This is a good, not a great, album. It is pretty derivative, but not as gratingly so as, say, Iced Earth. Other reviewers refer to the "brooding cello intro," almost as though it is some sort of master stroke; this is a "synth cello" that is not ineffective, yet not some great dramatic device either. In any case, at least this album is not littered with cheesy "goth" keyboards, or weak quasi operatic vocals (except on the second-to-last track). The lead singer has an effective gruff, but not "death metal growling" voice, in the James Hetfield vein. Based on what I've read and heard of this band's development, they seem to go along with the tide of whatever's popular at the time. If they were to release a new album now, it would probably have "nu metal" episodes in it.

All of that said, there are some good, heavy, moderately-paced guitar riffing here, and the songs are pretty good, if not particularly original - although the album definitely begins to flag a bit after about track five. I don't think it's any coincidence that this album was released the year after Metallica's "Black Album," as the first half of the album in particular reminded me a lot of the slowed-down, less technical, more accessible, approach that the former thrash masters took on their fifth opus - right down to the increased prominence of the wah wah pedal. Ironically, I found the last instrumental track to be among the most compelling, but alas it's way to short as the band went for the old metal album cliche' of the short, stapled-on, instrumental outro/closer; if you're going to bother to put an instrumental on a metal album, go ahead and develop it out a little more.

I didn't find this album to be quite the life-changing experience that some of the other reviewers here found it to be, and it wouldn't make my top 25 (or maybe even 50) metal albums list, but it's got some things to recommend it, especially for those who are relatively new to metal. Metal fans who have been around for awhile, may just find them selves reaching for some good ol' 'eighties speed metal, after listening to this.

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