This album can be heard on the site of Iced Earth main man Jon Schaffer for more than half a year. At first they did not intend to release it as a CD, but Century Media was interested and here it comes. This project of Jon has lyrics with controversial political and social issues and would be too much for his other band. But musically it is different from Iced Earth too.
Jon takes care of the lead vocals and of course the guitars. On the vocals he doesn't do a bad job, there are a lot of singers who do worse and sometimes he has similarities with Matt Barlow. As guest musicians we can mention Jim Morris (guitar solo), Troy Seele (guitar solos) and Howard Helm & Jeff Brandt (backing vocals). Ruben Drake takes care of all the bass parts and the drummer is a machine.
Most of the songs are mid-tempo and less heavy as Iced Earth. There is a folky song "The Cleansing Wind" with acoustic guitar parts and piano but also tight rock stuff like in "Tree of Liberty". Diversity is what you get and the songs are good and well arranged. I advice you to take a listen.
