After listening to The Battle the first time I said to myself this is too good to be true, there must be something wrong in here. But there wasn't. You see The Battle is simply ONE OF THE BEST HARD ROCK ALBUMS released in the 00's!!! What New Jersey (Bon Jovi, 1988), Firehouse (Firehouse, 1990), Look What The Cat Dragged In (Poison, 1986) were for the previous millennium, The Battle is for this one!
Let's do a little who's who first. Russel Allen is the nice looking fellow behind Symphony X's microphone. Respect. Why? Because Symphony X is one of the best symphonic / progressive Metal acts from the States during the last decade. He's also appeared in the Star One project. Jorn Lande seems to a bit busier. He has released a series of very cool solo albums but most people know him as the voice behind power metallers Masterplan. Let's not forget the two stunning albums he released with Ark. Who else is in this one? Oh, Mr. Magnus Karlsson, a young but stunning guitar player already known from his work with Starbreaker and Last Tribe. In the finale we have Jaime Salazar on drums, known from his work with art progsters The Flower Kings.
The outcome of this chemical formula? Stunning, breath-taking fresh Hard Rock with bombastic riffs etc. No doubt both vocalists in here are part of the cream of the crop in Metal today. Still, this album has much more to it than just cool vocal lines. You can listen to it in one breath and still crave for more. If you don't mind the term FM friendly (hey, this is Rock after all) this one is also quite heavy. Indeed the production is really pounding, really modern if you prefer. No, it's not extreme, but the guitars at times (and the rhythm section in general) made my speakers raise the white flag (not to mention my neighbors!).
Choose a song? Yeah, right! Can you pick a song out of Whitesnake's 1987 album? No sir, you can't. Same goes with The Battle. From start to finish it kills. So, all you posers rise now and fight for the privilege of permanent wave (mostly blond). This album shakes the standards of Hard Rock permanently in 2005.