Melodic Metal act SIGNS OF TRUTH have been hacking away in their native Sweden for a few years now. Conceived in 2006, it took the best part of a decade to form the first part of a stable line-up and not until 2020 did they complete the band with the arrival of the two guitarists featured on this, their debut LP.
Not to waste any more time on a barely existent history, lets dive right in. Opening track "Eye for An Eye" immediately sounds as though it is going to be dramatic stuff, an understated bass and keyboard intro builds, and guitars chime in at the expected moments. Once underway the riffs are standard nondescript chugging affairs, the lyrics are simple to the point of being excruciating, the performances sound awkward and not quite all working together. Patrik Holm has a competent rock voice, but the material is as undemanding as it is uninteresting, and he sometimes overuses his vibrato. The screeching guitar solo sounds like me singing a guitar solo, after four pints of beer.

Things don't improve much on "LML", the funky keyboard intro raises expectations briefly, which are quickly dashed by a tortured cliche of a guitar riff heralding a sluggish glam rocker. There are a few strained attempts at layering backing vocals, but really the lyrics are so banal they don't bear stating in the first place, let alone repeating.
The album proceeds in much this way track after track, the guitarists occasionally have a moment to show they can play quite competently, such as the solo in "Kiss of Death", but the song writing is all too often predictable, and the production is frankly a mess.  There's a valiant attempt at introducing some complex rhythms and compositional ideas in "I," but the overall level of performance isn't good enough to pull these off convincingly.

They whip out a piano ballad in "Peanut," the lyrics sound intensely personal so I will hold fire on those. The piano playing is soulful and assured, but Holm's voice doesn't really have the emotional punch to leave a lasting impression with this track. Still, it is one of the more bearable tracks.

Heading into the home stretch, there are a couple of long epics. First up is the over six minute long "News from The North," the guitars are particularly poorly recorded on this track, the chords are mushy and undefined. The track does little to justify its length, its littered with instrumental interludes that lack any sort of punch, and formulaic guitar solos that punctuate the collection of NWOBHM tropes they have strung together into this song.

The seven minute "Psychedelic Dream" opens with a bit of bluesy noodling that ends up being the best guitar tone and performance to be found on the LP, reminding me a bit of Richie Sambora's work on his solo material like "Stranger in This Town". The riff and chorus on this track are perhaps also the most entertaining on the album, which may explain why they felt the need to repeat them repeatedly for five further minutes.

Final track "Now" is something a bit different to the rest, it strays into Power Metal territory, and it sounds almost dynamic in places, there's some weird rave-sounding keyboards and a thumping good riff. It's all too little too late though.

As I mentioned before, among the many things that let this album down is the production, it is an absolute dog. The guitars are horribly recorded throughout, and the guitarists sound like they just got an early 90s Boss multi-effects unit for Christmas. The field for this genre is quite packed at the moment, and to stand out you need to do a lot better than this.