Having listened to the OP CD 6 times now, here's what I really think about it
I described it as 'Threshold lite' on my reviews for Amazon and CD Japan, but on subsequent listens I'd go as far as to call it a decent Threshold demo.
It has a lot of Threshold DNA running through it, familiar sounds, melodies and similarities.
But when Rich West opens his mouth, that's where it ends for me, his voice is decent enough, but more suited to pop or even ambient genres.
The songs are pretty decent, couple of quite memorable tunes, but I can't see myself going back to this again and again.
As a stand alone release this is more than passable, but because it could have been potentially a follow up to 'Legends Of the Shires', I can't help thinking how good this would be with Glynn Morgan's voice and Karl Grooms lead guitar/songwriting input (although he plays on two songs here).