I have had lot of pleasant memories of seeing the Mumbai based Horror lyrics driven traditional Heavy Metal band ALBATROSS twice so far and I have ever since become their fan boy and was avidly waiting for this release. I purposely did not listen to the individual songs that the band started promoting with leading up to the release date. This really is more personal as a fan, than most reviews I have done of a band from a different part of the world.

Frankly from all that I have seen the band live so far, the high pitch vocals of Biprorshee Das are what really got me into the band, but this record has a totally different touch to it in my opinion. With their debut full length, ALBATROSS has done what some may call insane and ridiculous, add a 3rd guitarist in the recording of this album, and the results are there to be seen, or heard. The sound of the guitars are some of the best that I have heard in recent times and are simply superlative, but on the other hand, the vocals are shockingly disappointing (the very reason I got into the band in the first place). The heavy riff-age in songs like "Jugglehead The Clown" really scream for your attention and simply form the musical crux of the album. As I listen to the album for the 3rd time, I wonder if the band added more guitarists would they sound any better, yes, call me crazy! But seriously, on the other hand, the 2 style vocals of Biprorshee here of the typical Power Metal screams, and the new kid-like vocals simply don't work here. It does partially in songs with more of the Power Metal vocals like in "Children Of The Cloud", but on the whole the band has shot itself in the foot by including the new style of vocals which simply could have been avoided. The album chugs along nicely, smoothly carefully woven to tell the 2 stories of aerial horrors through the lyrics. Not many albums give so much detailing to the story.

ALBATROSS has done here as the first story ends with "Outro" and the next starts with the anthemic "In The "Lair Of Dr. Hex", again with superlative riffs and solos that give you multiple ear-gasms. The drums and bass all work in tandem and the polished production does justice enough to the work put in by the musicians. The album ends with a 7 min epic song in "The Empire Of Albatross" as the low tempo slow intro is very intriguing and haunting on the ears before the usual guitar assault takes over.

Released on May 20th, as a whole the album is worthy of your time, especially if you are an old school traditional Heavy Metal connoisseur. Barring the earlier mentioned unconvincing vocal works, it's all juicy riffs all the way of 38 minutes of this debut album of these Mumbai folks. Reminds me of Israel Power Metal band SWITCHBLADE's 2013 album "Heavy Weapons", album oozing out old school-ness in every riff!