I'm sure I read the above text on a scroll pinned to a tree in Sherwood Forest...

Anyway, this record is solid. Solid as a block of aged white cheddar. The expensive kind. Yes, the cheese metaphors have begun. This is one of the most deliciously cheesy power metal albums I've heard in some time, and hope all you lasses and lads will join Twilight Force on the quest and whatnot.

Musically, keyboards and orchestrations lead the way through each song and the compositions all around remain interesting and exciting, track after track. Genre metal it may be but drag it does not! There is a lead vocalist but you sometimes wouldn't know it because of all the sing-a-long choruses. Nonetheless, the vocal solos are very good; Chrileon has solid skills all around and we mostly hear his great middle-upper range. Guest vocalists Fabio Lione and Joakim Brodén each appear on one of the 10-minute epics to help fight the forces of evil.

It's not all rainbows and fairies (I mean, come on, it mostly is). The production is not as clear as it could be and some tracks feel a bit muddy, especially related to the rhythm section, though all instruments suffer a bit. I may not have realized there were 2 guitars just from listening. This is slight, however; it's less a fault and more a place where this record could have just been even better than it is. Beware also the 6+ minute track entitled "Epilogue" which is a narration related to the story. Yes, six and a half minutes of an actor's monologue. No music. Thankfully it's the penultimate track and if you loathe spoken dialogue in your metal like some of us do, it's easy to skip and focus solely on the glorious, glorious music.