Report your thoughts Brent.
OK..............good album. I'll preface this by saying that I have never subscribed to the idea that Martensson is some sort of songwriting genius - and for some reason I've preferred the material he has written outside of his main band. I have trouble remembering much about the last album (Bleed and Scream) aside from the fact that I really liked 2 or 3 tracks and , as is often the case with Erik , the rest just blended into each other and left me uninspired.
The consensus among reviewers seems to be that this is "even better" than Bleed and Scream and I would agree with that - they said the same thing about the latest H.E.A.T. too ,with which I totally disagree. How you get better than 100% I don't know but I'll leave that to others
Like Bleed and Scream I really like a few tracks and the rest....not so much. The difference here is that IMHO the weaker tracks are a lot stronger. There's a few more slightly original ideas floating around too. It's probably a bit closer to the Hitchcock album in quality , if that means anything.
So - if you're already an Eclipse fan - you know what you're going to get and I'd say it's an automatic purchase. Those who are a bit iffy ........I'd still give it a go. It's exactly what you expect from Martensson. The guitar sound and production is about the same on every song and about the same as all his other stuff , there's huge riffs, huge production and a retro feel to a number of the songs. It's just straight ahead melodic hard rock done well but without anywhere near the songwriting depth of albums like Albion , Address The Nation etc......
I rate it 82% which is a lot higher than I expected going in. Having said that I'm not sure it's going to age well - it's a style of songwriting which catches your ear but for the most part doesn't demand multiple repeat listens......and that applies to most recent releases where I'm concerned. For what it is though it's well done.
I think you'll like it Kade , with the qualifications given above.