This is what metal is all about.  It’s like taking all the good 80’s power metal and turning up the intensity dial a few notches.  The drumming is spectacular and the Amott brothers execute a flawless finesse of fretwork.  Angela growls along perfectly and goes above and beyond the call of duty on parts where you would think she would settle down. 

 The disc starts off with a nice headbanging tune called “Silent Wars” which should get your juices flowing.  Next is their most commercial sounding song, “We Will Rise”, but it still plods along with some cool drumming.  Next is “Dead Eyes See No Future” which has some great guitar fills between verses, and “Instinct” has a heavy Judas Priest feel to it…especially the slow part that kind of sounds like the riff from “All Guns Blazing” from Painkiller.  “Exist to Exit” slows things down a little and has a simple, yet memorable opening guitar hook…then beats you senseless later on.  “Marching on a Dead End Road” is an instrumental that sets you up for the next song, “Despicable Heroes”, which is a fast number along the lines of Dark Tranquillity or In Flames.  The Cynic like vocals on “Dehumanization” and subtle keyboards in the background took me by surprise, but is nonetheless a great song.  One more instrumental sounds rather anthemic (is that even a word…hehe), and as such is called…you guessed it, “Anthem”, which leads right into the last song on the disc, “Saints & Sinners”.

 This comes with a second Bonus disc which is listed as a bonus DVD.  I was all sorts of happy about that.  I mean, if it’s a DVD, there are probably some videos or a live show or something.  Nope.  Just music in Dolby Digital 5.1.  hmmmm…that’s fine and all, but I don’t know a lot of people who actually use their DVD players to listen to music.  I tried it in my CD players, but that doesn’t work. 

 If you liked Wages of Sin, you should have no trouble banging your head to this disc.

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