Heavy with Power Metal vocals is a very hard thing to get right, it can either sound like a disastrous DR. ROCKSO (Metalocalypse) tribute album or a top 10 hit in the Metal charts. Sadly BORROWED TIME deliver the first option, releasing the album through High Roller Records this is the band's first full length album.

Opening track "Wallow In The Mire" is too long and too boring, the only good thing is Mark Preston's guitar solos. Halfway through the song JP Abboud's vocals sound strained and tired from his wide vocal range. The next two tracks "Dark Hearted" and "Libertine" blend into each other so well that you cannot tell that they are separate tracks. Both have VAN HALEN style riffs demonstrated by Preston and Justin Henry's simplistic Power Metal drums but the vocals yet again are strained. "The Thaumaturgist" opens with Abboud's high vocals; though impressive it did sound like he was auditioning for a KING DIAMOND tribute act. This track is the weakest on the album. You would expect "Dawn Of The Glory Rider" to be an epic battle song and it is true to the title, the vocals are much lower which is a huge improvement. The only problem with this track is the drumming, the drums are heavily Thrash influenced but it seems as if Henry cannot keep up. This is the longest song on the album but it would have been better as two separate songs.

I don't know what the band were thinking when they added "Of Nymph and Nihil" to the album but the vocals are barely understandable, the lyrics all seem to blend together into one big mess. The guitars and drums are extremely disappointing and un-original. "Pygmalion" is almost exactly the same to the previous track, the only good standard thing about it was the drumming. The best track on the album is acoustic ambient track "Transcendental Knavery". Though only 1.11 minutes long it is very different to the rest of the album, it's raw and stripped of anything that could damage the song. It has an eerie feel to it and makes you feel quiet nervous to what could be next. "A Titans Chain" has a heavy Thrash and Power Metal influence. Abboud's vocals work best here, his low vocals can give a threatening effect and his high's don't feel strained. The drum beat is fast but a few dropped beats can be sensed, the guitar is a standard thrash riff but still impressive. The solo at 2.29 gets faster and faster as it goes along. A real head banging song is exactly what the album needed. If the rest of the tracks took influence from this then the album would be a hit.

The band has made a good effort with the album but the production quality has brought it down a notch. Only 2/9 tracks are better than good, the band need to have some good practice sessions, maybe re-record and add a few more tracks like "A Titans Chain". The band will get huge if it can improve its sound.