Cryonic Temple are a Swedish sextet that claims to belong to the Melodic Speed Power Heavy Metal genre with progressive and thrash elements. An impressive boast and surprisingly enough it’s actually correct. As far as influences are concerned the Swedes also claim to have been raised on a diet of Iron Maiden, Iced Earth, Helloween, early Metallica and Grim Reaper amongst others, which is evident in their music and also the best way to describe the album.

The title track and album opener has elements of Schaffer’s riff-meistery, where as “Standing Tall” reminds the listener of Helloween during the Keeper albums, while the single ballad on the album, “As I Sleep” combines Judas Priest with Iron Maiden from a West European viewpoint of course. The album closes with “Departure” which I’m sure the band intends to become their own “Fade To Black”.

As far as the rest of the album is concerned, this combines the aforementioned influences but also the sound of what is referred to European Power Metal. But even though all the ingredients are there unfortunately this recipe hasn’t worked out. The album may be pleasant to the ear but it doesn’t have anything that distinguishes it from so many power metal albums that were released in 2008. And in these times if you can’t win ‘em with on the first try then unfortunately the future looks bleak.