My first contact with ASTRAL DOORS was during their very beginning with the "Of The Son And The Father" debut release. The primal impression was good enough, so I let myself join in their heavy tunes with their DIO-esque characteristics, especially in the vocal parts. The time has passed, ASTRAL DOORS have been released about four studio albums and it was about time to give a fresh stuff to their fans, since "New Revelation" that saw the light three years ago and didn't leave the best of the expected impressions. Well, the time has come and its requiem too; and to be more specific - speaking of the brand new ASTRAL DOORS album - I mean "Requiem Of Time", too.

What a die-hard fan can expect from the fifth album of a band that counts eight years in its back and used to have as pattern the doom version of Ronnie James Dio? Well, that's a difficult one, despite the fact that the repetition is one-way road and booby traps lurk in every corner. Fortunately, the sextet from Sweden already knows that and give us a respectable record, full of heavy and catchy riffs as the prestigious 80s have habituated us, without something shocking in it though. "Requiem Of Time" covers all the standards of what we call 'good album' but nothing special, nothing that did not happen before. Tracks like the opening "Testament Of Rock" and "So Many Days So Many Nights" constitute an optimistic lighthouse for every proud metalhead but the rest has been heard thousand times from leviathans of Metal, like RAINBOW and BLACK SABBATH. Maybe it is not that good to 'copy' your direct inspirations and imitate your music idols after all.

Listening to the closer "When Darkness Comes" once again and pointing its difference from the 'astral' maze, I have to state that if ASTRAL DOORS have decided to disengage themselves from this DIO-type, they have so many abilities to take advantage of, that the result would be altered and could surprised us rosily. I hope to find this way to their 'freedom' soon. Heavy Metal needs them to do it. Hails for the cover artwork.