More often than not a solo album is a vehicle for a musician to try new things and record music (somewhat) unlike what they are known for usually doing. For Primal Fear singer Ralf Scheepers first solo outing, the man chose to stay close to his heart (oddly enough like Rob Halford from Judas Priest). This is of no surprise given the players and who contributed to the songwriting; Mat Sinner (bassist for Primal Fear), Magnus Karlsson and Alex Beyrodt (guitar for Primal Fear) and former Primal Fear guitarist Stefan Leibing, guitarist Mike Chlasciak from the Rob Halford band, Gamma Ray’s Kai Hansen (guitars), and Rage guitarist Victor Smolski.

Obviously ‘Locked In The Dungeon’ could have easily appeared (maybe was a left over idea at some point?) on any Primal Fear album, and ‘Remission Of Sin’, which features a strong duet between Ralf and Tim Owens (former singer for Judas Priest), is a mid tempo rocker very much in the spirit of the band Sinner.

A little vocal effect is added a couple times during ‘Cyberfreak’, a subtle orchestration is the underlining melody for ‘The Fall’, followed by the dark spoken intro to ‘Doomsday’. With ‘Saints Of The Rock’ Ralf incorporates a less aggressive chorus and splashes of keys, going into Avantasia territory and the beginning to ballad ‘The Pain Of The Accused’ (and also album closer ‘Compassion’ where Ralf really spreads his wings) is one of the few times you hear his gentler side. The cover of the Judas priest classic is just champion and clearly shows that if Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens didn’t get the gig replacing Halford, Ralf was clearly the next choice. ‘Playing With The Fire’ returns to the Primal Fear formula.

Good meat and potatoes hard rock and metal all around, just some of it sounds too familiar to PF. Next time I’d like to hear Ralf try out even a few more different things.