This is Gus G’s sophomore album which finds him with a more stable band than his debut, with less guests and similar modern hard-metal style.
Jacon Bunton who was singing on only one song in “I Am The Fire” has the lion’s share here with five tracks featuring his lead vocals. The sound of his voice is great giving each song a special color. Mats Leven and his amazing voice contribute on three songs, Jeff Scott Soto on two and the only female singer on the album, Amaranth’s Eliz Ryd, on “What Lies Below”. Except from Gus the band is completed with Johan Nunez on drums and Marty O’Brien on bass. Jay Ruston’s production is crystal clear.
The style and attitude of the album follows “I Am The Fire” leaning towards a more American sound with fresh ideas and modern arrangements but, I think that the songs’ quality it total is a bit lower than his debut. Those that I found that stand out at once are “We Are One”, “If It Ends Today”, “The Demon Inside”. I can’t say that I will remember the rest of the songs after some time, contrary to “I Am The Fire” where most of the songs stuck on better.
Our expectations from the Greek guitarist are high as a mountain and maybe too much, but that’s his fault because he got as used to great quality to everything he does. So, I hope that his next album whether is solo or with Firewind is better.
