There is something really tricky when it comes to power metal or heavy metal; the vocals are as important as the guitars and the solos; if a singer of this particular style of metal doesn’t have the proper vocal training, its going to sound bad, it doesn’t matter how talented the singer is, he or she needs some proper training to be able to reach some of the high pitch screams; and that’s exactly what’s wrong with this album.

Auriga is a one hour and seven minutes monster; the album is long, is very long, but it has some great moments and a huge display of talent and imagination. It will be hard and not very accurate to say that this is a progressive heavy metal band, that from time to time places some thrash metal riffs just to confuse you even more (in a good way); the guitars are remarkable, the song structure is interesting and refreshing; the tempo changes are weird but imaginative and the production is above standard for an underground act.

Ok let’s go song by song:
Indian Story has a nice intro, as pretty much all the song do in this record. The guitars are very well done, they just sound a little… dirty, some of the riffs are wrap in some noise that covers them in some segments, but they are still very well placed and played. In this track is when I first realize that the only negative thing about this band was the singer, it sounds like he is trying to hard to reach the right notes in some screams and he ends up sounding very forced and fake. The tempo changes in Indian Story vary a couple of times, they are weird, I cant really say they are bad is just that they are very complicated and at some points it sounds like they are forgetting the whole melody of the song.

The House is a tempo rollercoaster, that makes me wonder, “Auriga is ether full of geniuses or idiots” why? Well because the changes on rhythm are complicated, and they don’t seem to accomplish anything more than a showoff performance or… they are beyond my understanding of music (something that can very well be true!!!!).

La Espada Y La Ley, ok this is your typical Spanish based power metal song, even the lyrics are a huge cliché, about a king and his sword and his kingdom; well you know what I’m talking about.

Living On A Cloud, this song could have been great, great if Auriga had cut the segments in which nothing happens; this song is huge 11:50 minutes, and only 4 or 5 actually worthy of your time…uhmm lets say half this song is great, the rest is totally unnecessary; here you can hear all of Auriga’s progressive sound.

The Legend has a very cool start, amazing guitars, and really catchy tunes. The song speeds up when it’s necessary and slows down when you need a break, good arrangements of the timing and very heavy drums.

From East...And Beyond, another great, epic intro helped by some accurate drumming; this is probably the most remarkable song of the album, definitely a favorite of mine thanks to the kind of Arab or flamenco (not sure, but I think flamenco is highly influence by Arab music) guitars placed on the mix.

A Night In My Room, well since this review is getting a little long, I’m going to simplified, this is a nice song with bad vocals. Alchemy an instrumental piece that shows us that Auriga is a very talented band, they just need more time to develop. Bizarre World, good track, very catchy a nice finish for the album.

To conclude, a nice album, sadly the vocals ruin it for me; the singer approaches every song the same way, but the guitars and the entire song writing save his ass making Auriga an album worth buying.