Hello again, certainly it has been a while, 3 weeks in fact, took a little vacation, hope y'all been doing well. Anyhow, vacation time's over and it's back to business, and I'm jumping right in there with the debut of French one man outfit PSYCHOCALYPSE.

I must say that one man bands are usually of two types, either they're terrible or they're awesome. When you write and record alone there's a downside of not being able to bounce ideas off of others, the upside however is that when you're not forced to deal with a lot of egos, you can truly see your creative vision come to life, but like I said, it's a two way street, one way leading to creative genius, while the other leads to damnation. And so, with that in mind, I clicked play.

A haunting slow building Intro welcomes us into this debut record, the melody is certainly very haunting with piano, drum beats and guitars slowly coming in to create a great atmosphere for the rest of the album culminating in a fun and heavy instrumental piece, which leads smoothly into the real opening track "Lost Souls", a heavy riff with a melodic accompaniment and growling vocals mix interestingly to create a track reminiscent of a the infamous "Gothenburg Sound" of Sweden's Melodic Death Metal scene. "In the Lost Kingdom" is a great track with a very fun melodic hook to it while being able to remain rather heavy and pounding.

The title track is a more symphonic affair with an opening of female operatic vocals inlayed into the opening moments and the chorus. A highlight for me was the excellent "Staring as a Wolf" not surprising considering that it seems to be Melodic Death Metal infused with some mid 90's PARADISE LOST especially in its opening. "Frozen Area" continues the melodic affair this time with some nice Thrash riffs added for good measure and more female vocals mixed in. Anyone who enjoys Metal of a more melodic nature will undoubtedly like this record.

The production is pretty much what you'd expect from a debut from a one man show, but doesn't take anything away from the quality of the music, a very good album, especially with the winter fast approaching.