"Arise", the new album from US Heavy Metal veterans (having been around since the mid-nineties) OMEGA REIGN is everything you'd expect, seeing as they cite their influences as IRON MAIDEN and DIO, which certainly isn't a bad thing.

The album starts off with a bit of atmospheric build up - background noise, slow-ish guitars, and a piano. It's all slowly building towards the moment they bring the heavy. I've mentioned their influences, and it shows in the style of the album - very traditional Heavy Metal with galloping guitars and drums, and soaring vocals. Talking about the vocals however, I wasn't too fond of the moments when he tried to go higher than his natural singing voice - it sounded forced and out of place to me but luckily he didn't try this too often. There's nothing to criticize in terms of the instruments though - the fantastic riffs and melodies serve as the foundations, pushing the album along to its conclusion. There's not a dud song on here, but at the same time, there's not one that stands out from the rest of the pack.

It's a solid album, and it's well put together, but it doesn't do anything overly exciting. I know it's a lot more difficult to come up with something completely original nowadays, so I have a tremendous amount of respect for the people that can even just put together a good album. Saying that, "Arise" is a good album, there's no doubt about that, but there's nothing that we haven't seen before. Indeed, they have shared the stage with bands such as ZZ TOP, and W.A.S.P., so you can tell they know their craft, and "Arise" shows this. It's evident from this album that they love what they do, and they put a lot into their music, which is always nice to hear from a band - it means they're not just going through the motions to churn out an album.

To sum up then, this is not a bad album, not by any stretch of the imagination. If you like your Heavy Metal from the eighties then I think you'll enjoy this album a great deal, I certainly did.