A new release straight out of the Mausoleum catalog. No wait, a slightly dated release out of the Mausoleum catalog. Although this cd was recently sent to Metalrage.com HQ, the back of the cover reads "(C) 2004". Hmm. Oh well, let's state that this Belgian pack of hard rockers play music that has to be labelled "timeless", and listening to this disc, one soon thinks "Maiden", "Saxon", "Priest" or just "1983".

As said, this band plays music that is highly influenced by 80's hardrock and heavy metal. Especially the Maiden sound is very dominating. And with music such as this released in 2004, it seems irrelevant to argue about the relevance of an album, forget originality. The key question is, how does it sound? Is it any good? 

Well it's quite a nice listening experience. Eleven old school hardrock songs that display good craftsmanship. In the line-up one may find the vocals extraordinary, considering the fact that many bands alike have singers that sound like Napalm Lex in a vocal booth. But Double Diamond amazes with their vocalist, a combination of Paul Di'Anno and sometimes even a bit of Dio-power. As for the rest of the group: it sounds like a steady good group of metal heads that know what they are doing. 

Even though some of the songs stretch over four or even five minutes, it never slums into a muddy swamp of boring solos or endlessly repeated boring riffs. We're talking compact song material, a bit like early Maiden, and the solo's that do take place are nice and energized. 

If you are not afraid of classic metal jargon, typically traditional thematics (think "shiny metal" "defeating the unbelievers", and so on), I'd say: go get it. And play it in your car, whilst running or skydiving. This sort of music is designed for moving forward.