Fans of the band HOUSE OF LORDS will know that the band that recorded this album bears little resemblance to the band that saw marginal success in the 80s. The past few albums have been released by what is essentially original vocalist James Christian and a bunch of other people that I've never heard of.

The original HOUSE OF LORDS was the brainchild of keyboardist Gregg Giuffria, and had a minor hit with their awesome cover of BLIND FAITH's Can't Find My Way Home. They broke up in 1992 amid the onset of Grunge and reformed a little after the turn of the millennium.

At this point, with a new HOUSE OF LORDS album, you pretty much know what to expect. The keyboards are quite prominent in the mix and the songs sound straight from the 80s. The problem that I had with this album was that none of the songs brought anything new to the table. I understand and can even appreciate a band that writes good 80s hard rock, but here the hooks are paper-thin and usually rehashes of what I've heard many times before. The guitars are pushed back in the mix, even during the mediocre solos.

If you liked the last album, go ahead and pick this one up, it's pretty much more of the same. Anyone hoping to a return to their 80s heyday (and their excellent comeback album, The Power And The Myth), should not get their hopes up.