What to write about this sixth album already by TAD MOROSE? Anyone familiar with this five-man band from Bollnds, Sweden already knows that their sound can be summed up in one word: SAVATAGE. Granted, there's influences from QUEENSRŸCHE, METAL CHURCH and er, W.A.S.P. to be found here as well. But let's not beat around the bush here and state the inevitable fact that if you like SAVATAGE's "Hall Of The Mountain King" and everything that came after you'll most definitely love this as well. And now that we've stated that originality is not TAD MOROSE's strong point it also must be said that at least they do a good job of emulating the sound of their favorite artists. Their own song material is good enough to stand on its own, the production is heavy and top-notch, musically it's flawless and Urban Breed (now something tells me that's not the name he was born with) is an amazing singer. Even the cover art is great!!

Since objectively speaking this is a really good record and TAD MOROSE are really one of the better bands in the often one-dimensional, boring and crap-filled world of power metal I feel like I should not bother 'em too much with my usual Mr. Knowitall attitude. So just this once I'll refrain from crying "ripoff", even when songs like "Take on the World" and "Life in a Lonely Grave" sound so much like SAVATAGE it's just not funny anymore.

Apparently the official CD will contain three bonus tracks, all covers by URIAH HEEP, ACCEPT and ABBA. They're not on this promo copy so I can't comment on them. I won't be so cynical to call this a kind of cover album to begin with. Let's just say zero points for originality but a big four skulls for everything else.

- Van Hoften

OFFICIAL SITE: www.tadmorose.com

MP3 SOUND SCRAP: Cyberdome

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