This is the worst album ever put out by Symphony X, but it's still not a bad one (how do they do it?). One big difference is of course that Russell Allen hasn't stepped in yet, and instead of him there's Rod Tyler. I guess some people can see something positive in Rods singing, but there can't be much of it. Ok, he's got his own style of singing and a quite original voice, but his lack of fantasies when it comes to making melodies is almost unacceptable. When I say almost, I mean that he actually does real good phrases. The negative thing with them is that keep repeating all the time. It's not an interesting singer in a long run.

There are some songs that's really boring, but on the other side there are those which are abolutely fantastic. I think the piano has a very special reason on this album. It's got that magical, mystical and deep sound. The sound production is real bad though. The one suffering most of this is Jason Rullo, since his playing sometimes is everything but clear. It sounds like some low-cash demo. Ok, maybe a high-cash then.

Symphony X are well known for their choir arrangements, and I think this album is filled with plenty of that. There's an obvious inlfuence of Queen everywhere (which really are the masters of choirs). Songs worth mentioning as good one are "The Raging Season", "Premonition", "Masquerade", "Shades of Grey" and "A Lesson Before Dying". These are the very best ones.

I've gotten my hands on the japan release, but there's nothing unusual about it.