Sometimes it's hard to understand all the praises raining over certain albums. I've heard a lot of good things about EMERALD's 5th release, "Re-Forged" and I was really looking forward to listen to this album. On the first few spins I was truly disappointed. Lightweight Power Metal wasn't at all what I was expecting. Of course the album got better for each spin but I still don't get the greatness with it. It includes a bunch of decent songs, the opener, "The Wanderer" is a fast very and modern Metal track and takes the mind far north to the melodic parts of the Gotheburg Death Metal Scene, for the riff, harmonies and structure. Not the style, one of the highlights of the album. The second one "The Last Legion" is quite IRON MAIDEN-esque with twin guitars and the gallop rhythm and that's what is disturbing, it's way to easy to set tags on the songs, "Pipes Are Calling" to EDGUY, "Secret Agenda" as the CAGE song and so it goes song by song. Ok, perhaps not the most common references for a band but for me it's a real turn off when it's that easy to pin point the influences. Of course it's hard to come up with something completely unique nowadays but there's a difference that easily can be felt if bands write from their hearts or if they try to steal a feeling or rip off a riff of the MAIDEN, PRIEST, HELLOWEEN-hits. Why I don't believe it? I don't think there's substance enough in this record for it to be remembered at all.

Well, the album isn't really that bad. "Re-Forged" has a really pleasant production, good and dynamic sound without being too cleaned or overly produced. Really, the "CAGE"-song "Secret Agenda" is phenomenal. It frankly screams CAGE and Sean Peck who also is making a guest appearance on the album among a few others. "Witches Tower" does quite stand out too and takes my mind across the Atlantic Ocean, it's quite typical semi-obscure US Metal, it's a lot more foul and raw than the rest of the album. Sure, there are other speedy songs on the record but they are more straight forward and ordinary than this one. Variety is a good thing but when it rather feels like being fragments of 2-3 different records rather than a versatile album it feels like EMERALD has lost the red thread. Since this line up (Jvo Julmy out, Thomas Winkler and Manuel Werro in) is new it can take a while to find stability again. The good side to it is that the album absolutely will appeal to a broader crowd but I still wonder where EMERALD went.

In a way I understand there's room for this type of band. In general they sound pretty decent and they have produced some really good music. And there will always be people who consume this type of Metal but this is hardly an album that will be remembered like a classic.