What we have here is a the sixth album by, and I quote, "the reigning queen of dramatic and progressive symphonic rock and metal from Los Angeles", "the undisputed queen...who will continue to reign for many years to come". Maybe it's the "Los Angeles" part that adds some truth to this statement, perhaps the Los Angeles metal scene is not particularly impressive.

I could not envision anyone except for record company marketing executives to call this album "progressive", "symphonic" or "metal". Not even "dramatic", or at least not in any positive sense of the word. Lana Lane's voice (quoted to be "angelic", "dramatic" and "powerful", amid several other positive adjectives) is pretty standard at best. The musicians she works with are too standard too; you need more than a few odd time sigs to be called "progressive", and even those were few and far between. The snare drums sound horribly synthetic. "The songs come to life with a fanfare of regal majesty"? Come on, get real. It's a mediocre pop album.

What the heck is happening to Lee Aaron - the true Metal Queen - these days?

RK

Written April 1999

Back to the Main Menu