Swedish band BLACKSHINE has been around since 1988; their first release came out in 1994, when they were still called HETSHEADS, and that same year the name BLACKSHINE was born. From the note on the promo disc, we learn that on previous albums (from 1997 and 2002) the band played a kind of goth'n'roll with various additions. So what do we hear on this release? Everything under the sun — first thrash-power, then modern metal, and the disc essentially wraps up with thrash compositions. While the first track at least gives some hope, the second already fares worse in its role, and after the third song through to track 11 there's nothing worth listening to. In the aggressive compositions the vocals come across fine, but in songs crafted in the tradition of hard power metal, they sound simply dreadful — the logic of "Barlow and Kursch growl, so I will too" simply doesn't work. Incidentally, the first track, the only genuinely strong one on the album, is clearly executed in the spirit of Jon Schaffer's songwriting (ICED EARTH, DEMONS & WIZARDS), so the comparison with the aforementioned vocalists is no accident — it's precisely that musical tradition that saves it.
Of course, the band could wait another five years and change their style again, and perhaps then something might work out for them, though it would definitely be preferable for the members to pursue music in other bands and stop blessing the planet with their own material — after all, from a technical standpoint the musicians are beyond reproach. The same cannot be said, however, about the mastering. There's a constant sensation of unnecessary loudness and the resulting noise effect that prevents you from concentrating on the music.
So that's the situation — seemingly original, seemingly multi-stylistic, seemingly excellent ideas, but the execution and the result suffer. It's clear the musicians tried hard and invested in the recording, and they certainly have experience, since their playing is at a very high level, yet in the end, the disc is mediocre.