Doskonały projekt a właściwie super grupa MARS tworzona przez ówczesną elitę muzyków wykonujących Hard &Heavy Metal  Tony Macalpine gu and key, Tommy Aldridge- Dr, Rob Rock- Led vov i Rudy Sarzo- bass gu stan okładki bdb stan płyty bdb

Shrapnel's trademark during many years has been the stuff of guitar virtuosos. You can find Malmsteen's Steeler and MacAlpine's stuff, just to mentioned the most well-known artists of the label, but in the first half of the '80s a four member project had released a very powerful album.

The project is really astonishing with MacAlpine on guitars, Aldridge on drums, Rock on vocals, and Sarzo playing bass. It is much more than a project, but a dream team. Sadly, they just released this album.

Describing its sound, it has the atmosphere of a space-themed power metal album with influences from bands like Queensrÿche, Fates Warning, and even Crimson Glory (the well-known white collar USPM sound) with a touch of MacAlpine, who with no doubts marked the difference in the sound of the album. Years later, you'll find traces of the atmosphere of this band with German power metallers like Scanner and Forced Entry.

In the first part (the power metal side), you'll find the hard speed metal hitters "Nations on Fire", "Stand Up and Fight", and "Unknown Survivor". These songs, of course, have the sound I mentioned, very effective speed metal with the neoclassical solos MacAlpine plays and Rob Rock vocals being the ingredients that the songs needed. Another important song is the ballad "Nostradamus". In this song, MacAlpine shows another talent he has: keyboard playing. In a more traditional vein, the second part is more relaxed. They explored a more romantic theme, leaving the space, power, and war lyrics of the first part. It isn't really one I enjoyed a lot, but another a good song is "Fantasy".

So the album is a very good release. Maybe it isn't cheap (at least in this country), but if you have a chance, just buy it. If you would like to know a similar album, search for Forced Entry's (Ger) self-titled. The album has a similar sound (except for keyboards).