DOMINATE

If I were to rate this album on songs 2-7 it would receive 6 stars, these songs are that great! I love to hear music that captures many different styles. In this case I hear progressive metal, power metal, progressive rock and extreme prog metal. What a great disc (or 3/4 of a disc)! The first time I heard it I thought WOW! Now after the third or fourth listen I am hearing new things like make me like it even more. Unfortunately, and I have no idea why, other than I have heard that the record company MADE them finish this early, it seems that songs #1,8 and 9 are just average songs. Granted #1 (Fire Forever) and #9 (Undying) are good songs they are not the same quality as what I call the "REAL TRACKS" 2-7. Btw #8, the Fame cover tune must be thrown in there just for fun (at least I hope so). Had they been able to add one or two additional tracks of the quality level of the previously mentioned 6 this would have been in contention for album of the year in my opinion. But, given the flaws I can only rate it with 4 stars, 4.5 to be exact.