I have been a fan of Xandria for some time now and have picked up each of their albums. Each one brought the same fantastic Xandria signature sound and style.

While I am not a huge fan of Techno, I am a lover of the Gothic rock and Metal sound. Xandria manages to to combine all three to create a great style. Many will try to compare this band to other female fronted bands such as Within Temptation, After Forever, Epica, Nightwish and even Evenesence, but Xandria is a bit more unique than those. The only thing that compares them to those other bands is the fact that Xandria is fronted female singer.

Lisa Middelhauve on this new album hits some notes in the lower range and this really sets her apart from all of the Operatic female singers like Simone Simones, and Tarja. While Lisa never does do the opera style vocals, she can hit higher notes. I find her voice to be soft when it needs to be and have enough power when needed. The other good point about Xandria is they pretty much avoid the growls or Cookie monster talk that bands like After Forever and Epica add in and ruin good songs with.

Marco Heubuam is a solid guitar player and while he does not have the blazing spead that some other guitar players have, I find him to be solid and not over the top with his playing. His style adds a great mix to a great band.

Macro and Lisa do the majority of the writing and between the pair, they write some very good songs. On this new album I really enjoy Sisters of the Night which has a very techno sound to it and Vampire which takes Lisa to a very low range while singing.

The rest of the band made up of Nils Middelhauve bass (Lisa's husband), Phillip Restemeier guitar, and Gerit Lamm drums,are all solid and fill the need of the band.

If your looking for a band that is a bit different than all the other female fronted bands, check out Xandria. if your into bands with great looking lead singers, then Xandria is also in your bag. If you want music that is fun yet rocks then Xandria is the answer.

I will add since I started to listen to Xandria 2 years ago, I have gotten many fellow musicians and friends into Xandria.

Lisa Middelhauve's last studio album with Xandria and she went out with a bang on this one. I agree that it does sound more of a techno/pop on this effort but still sounds damn good. Xandria is a few bands that can pull this off and still sound gothic/symphonic to keep there true fans happy. I love the whole album but my favorites are: Save My Life (I love the video), Firestorm, A New Age, Sisters Of The Light, and Sleeping Dogs Lie.

This album has one excellent symphonic metal song after another on it capped off with Sisters of the Light you will love it if you are a rock fan or symphony fan or just love great music! Buy it! You won't regret it.

My lukewarm reaction to this CD is due in part to my own expectations, so keep that in mind before you place too much weight on my opinions. First the good news: the singer does have a lovely voice. Now the bad news: the band does not have a lot of original ideas. Both the cover art and the things I had heard about this record made me expect a pretty authentic-sounding Middle Eastern flavored "world music" CD, or at least a reasonably interesting stab in that direction (A good example of this is some of Ofra Haza's recordings: they blend cultures in a very original way). But alas, none of that was to be found here. This is really a heavy rock band which has woven into the songs a few trite and stereotypical caricatures of what middle eastern music is. The ideas they come up with tend to fall into the bland and unimaginative category, though occasionally do border on embarrassing. So, if you want a heavy rock CD with melodies that are as uniquely Middle Eastern as the Mexican Hat Dance is to the Latin Music tradition, then have at it. For me, it was hackneyed and platitudinal.