Tore Östby, John Macaluso and Jorn Lande is back with another Ark album, this time a bit different line-up. Sass is covered by Randy Coven (ex-Steve Morse Band), while keyboards on this album is played by legendary Mats Olausson.
The music itself has left the psychadelic form which may have come as a surprise from the first album, and with this one they´ve entered a bit more "standard" kind of metal. Don´t know really if "standard" is such as good word to use in an Ark review, but what I mean is that they´ve done a bit more song oriented writing this time. Jorn Lande has let his Coverdale spirit lay down for a bit, but strangely enough he shows obvious Ronnie James Dio influences on "Burn the Sun".
Tore Östby handles the guitars better than ever. As usual he´s there with inferno rhythm lines aswell as superb solo injections. What I´ve always loved about his playing is the latino Al Di Meola alike acoustic playing. This is best demonstrated in the brillian "Just A Little", which of course also reminds a bit of old Conception days then.
There ain´t one single bad tune on this album. I guess that´s what´s so great about it, except for the excellent musicianship. It´s great to hear 90´s metal combine the 70´s sound in such way, spiced up by an emotional singer for once, instead of all these high pitching german singers. Jorn Lande proves emotion.
I think the while band totally shines the whole album thru, and my average opinion on this album is that it´s among the best metal albums ever done. It´s such great fun getting to know the music of the new generation of musicians within the genre. It seems like this band will be among those who lay the path for the future. It´s obvious that Östby and Jorn has something to offer....
