There are lots of melodic parts and riffs and some times mainly in the guitar parts, you could say that you are listening a power metal band. It is a really hard album for the band. The fans of the first albums will find a few tracks that they will like. On the other hand the fans of the more melodic and power sounds will have the vocals of Angela to bother them.
Maybe because the album has sixteen tracks, it is easy to separate it in two parts. The first half of the album has tracks that could easily be part of a Stratovarius album, if you take apart the black vocals of Angela Gossow. Songs like “No Gods,No Masters”, “Under Black Flags We March”. “Bloodstained Cross” has some thrash metal elements and with its explicitly melodic chorus and with the great solo of Michael Amott is one of the best songs of the album.
The separation is more easily understood by the (excellent) instrumental piece which is in the middle of the album. From then on the songs reminded me the old days of Arch Enemy with songs like “Cult of Chaos” and “Thorns in my Flesh”. Personally I enjoyed more the first half of the album but that does not mean that these tracks don’t have parts that are exceptional.
P.S. The album cover is really awful! They should have put more thought into it.
