Eleven “new” songs meant to coincide with the German Metal Queen’s 25th anniversary. Sadly, ‘Celebrate’, ‘The Night Of The Warlock’ and ‘Herzblut’ were all available pre-release, either as singles or on an Ep. Add to that my attendance at the Dusseldorf shindig commemorating her career, which means ‘Walking With The Angels’, a duet with former Nightwish singer Tarja Turunen, and ‘25 Years’ (which was used as part of the stage intro) hold no surprise factor. That said, the album walks the line between mid-tempo anthems (in the ‘I Love Rock N Roll’ style) and heartfelt ballads/love songs, including the aforementioned ‘Herzblut’ once again sung in her native tongue.

The biggest surprise is an upbeat, almost punky ‘Caught In The Battle’. Paired with ‘On The Run’, they’re the lone speedsters in the bunch. There’s an accentuated heavy stomp on ‘Running From The Devil’, ‘I Lay My Head On My Sword’ and the Sabbathy plod of ‘It Kills Me’. Four of the tunes fail to crack four minutes and none is longer than six (ie. a relatively short album). By the way, the digi includes a pair of extra tracks (‘Wildfire’ and ‘You Won My Love’). The woman has hundreds of compositions from which to choose a live set (as witnessed at the 30 songs concert, featuring rare diamonds) and as she gets older, a few slower moments onstage undoubtedly are warranted, but I somehow doubt too many of these will be permanent residents, beyond the current touring season.