Titkos ünnep

The second killer Ossian album in three years. This is by far their heaviest effort to date, with the intro leading up to the first few seconds of "Hell of Love" which is very very reminiscent of a certain "Faster than a bullet, terrifying scream" album opener. (I will let the reader decide which classic of speed metal I refer to, giving only the hint that it is not "Disco Inferno".) Frenetic power/speed metal that would not be out of place on a Gamma Ray album calms down but only very slightly for "The Heart and the Mind", which is straight-up power metal.

Then, "Valley of Memories" and "Pagan Prayer" continue the strong and variant songwriting that has made modern Ossian so enjoyable. "Journey" is also quite nice, and "Blood of Ancients" is a total highlight with some insane soloing in the middle, and great riffs as well. "Hazardous Game" and "No Escape" are kinda fast power metal songs, and "100 Songs, 100 Stars" is so insanely catchy, it should be rounded up and returned to Blind Guardian.

We go to "Captive of Danger" and "At the Gates of Doom" - more nice power metal. It's hard to figure out exactly what this album sounds like - with the added heaviness, they sound like a slightly less epic "Imaginations from the Other Side" at times, and also have a definite Helloween influence ("Time of the Oath" era), but for the most part, the sound is quite their own.

The last song is an English version of "The Heart and the Mind". It's the same music, but it's rendered unintentionally amusing by Endre Paksi's highly accented English. But hey, if that's the worst feature of this album, then it must by definition be a winner.