I'm sorry, what was that? I didn't quite hear you; a little louder? POST APOCALYPTIC POWER METAL?? Shit the bed; that is awesome! And that's coming from a Power Metal fan who loves games like Fallout New Vegas (for those who don't know, it's like Skyrim set in a post-apocalyptic world), so this band is my cuppa tea. Or, given they're a German band; this is my shot of Jägermeister.

Now, once you understand what this band is you can really hear the kind of Doomy feel to the riffs, yet they're Thrashy in places and that makes for the exact feel these guys were going for.

For those who don't know, SHADOWBANE was founded between 2007 and 2009 in Hamburg, Germany and were inspired to play the raw U.S. Power Metal sound of the 80s and 90s mixed with traditional Metal and Thrash elements. The lyrics are thematically inspired by dystopic action movies. Come on, that's cool as hell.

This is the band's second album and is one which almost did not see the light of day, as it was going through its mastering process, at the hands of Dirk Schlächter of GAMMA RAY, when Hammer Studios burned down in November 2013, causing a huge delay in the production of the album and many more albums. But the fire cannot kill the Metal! Because here we are, with this absolutely amazing album finished and ready to reach the ears of buzzing Metal fans everywhere it can reach.

Listening to this album, there is a lot of influences in there from your German Teutonic Metal bands, like ACCEPT and KREATOR and I've only just noticed but there is something quite Doomy about German Metal music, but this band kind of needs to be Doomy given their very unique genre.

This album is a great combination of your Classic and Traditional Metal bands, especially in songs like "After the Fallout" and "Traitor". Whereas tracks like "Beyond the Winds of War" have a sort of ICED EARTH-esque feel to it, and along with the track "Dystopia" which has a Mark Tornillo era ACCEPT feel to it mixed with Traditional Metal like STEELWING.

All in all, this is a cracking album with some great playing, song writing and only has one criticism to it, I think. That is that its repetitive sound can get a little boring if you're listening for too long, but that was just me. But none the less, I highly recommend giving it a listen, and when I say listen, I mean crank that shit up!