The first sounds heard are thrashing guitars, kicking off "Preemptive Strike" and I'm wondering if these are the same progressive minded Swedes who put out a pair of albums on Century Media, at the start of the decade. True enough, with "Manifest Tyranny" being their sixth studio effort to date. Even before the opening cut concludes, keyboards enter and any misgivings about ANDROMEDA abandoning their sound of old are proven false. Such energy is absent from the remaining nine tracks, only sections of the dissonant/disjointed "Asylum" and CIRCLE II CIRCLE sounding "Antidote" finale get close.

Treading similar territory to MERCENARY, countrymen ENGEL and bits of EVERGREY, the Prog-Power quotient is certainly skewed towards the former. The anti-war "False Flag" utilizes clips of President Obama's Nobel acceptance speech, while the piano ballad "Chosen By God" borrows audio voiceovers from several world leaders, including George W. Bush and Tony Blair. The gentile "Go Back To Sleep" might just have that effect on the listener.