Review by JD on January 22, 2010.

I have heard one release from Dreadnaught more than once, and it is true that I never really liked their harder Rock style they mixed in with some pedestrian metal that was a lackluster style - even though they had been a out-and-out Thrash band once. This Austrailian fixture has now finally redeemed themselves in a big way, returning to their Thrash roots in all of it’s glory, finally Dreadnaught turns the corner and now shows that they really are a metal band to the core.

With such songs as ‘Save Your Life’ and ‘10X Pain’ show the power the band has, yet a few ‘quieter’ moments like ‘Reflection Pt.1' show a band that has really worked on being good musicians. These boys can really shred as well, having this overall feel like if you took Iron Maiden sounding vibes, then turning that all over and injecting some Thrash and then made sure that there was a whole shot load of originality in how it was made.

There are some more commercially angled sort of songs on the album, but they turn out to be not too bad, as they have kept the heaviness going. These particular tracks are not my favourites on the album, but they don’t make me want to vomit... they confirm that this is a band that is in transition to a better musical place embracing their metallic roots with both hands.

They do make you feel that they are not quite back completely, but it is a seriously far cry from their LP "Dirty Music", an album that made me question them more than once. I never reviewed it... but that might have been a good thing too. With that all said and done here, I send out a big ‘Oi,Oi,Oi’ to my Austraillian metallic bros and sisters from the land down under... and I am pleased to tell them and the world that the mighty Dreadnaught is back and they are taking the world by force.

Categorical Rating Breakdown　

Musicianship: 8
Atmosphere: 8.5
Production: 8.5
Originality: 7 (Being in transition like the band is, cant go any higher with the rating)
Overall: 8

Rating: 8.0 out of 10

Review by Adam M on August 10, 2009.

Dreadnaught have a quite excited flavour to their thoughts as they groove around many songs quite effectively. The style they play is somewhat straight of the line and shows a need to excite on many different levels. They go through a variety of different exciting poses in their sound as it touches upon the heavier elements of metal, but also calms down for some nice interludes from time to time which is a good change of pace.

A very upbeat tone of voice is presented throughout and makes for a rousing flavour added to the band as they progress through the stages. The vocals are cleanly sung, but don’t offer a particularly distinctive point of view to the stages as they come across slightly standard, but reasonably good, sounding throughout. This leads to a sort of dry type work where the sound is downtrodden slightly into a normal sounding realm. There is an energetic flavour to what’s to be found here, but it doesn’t have enough of passion that it would take to make for something truly compelling. The music is regardless quite interesting at times and has enough texture to come around to something quite enjoyable.

The band have a lot of potential to throw the songs into further progressive territory and come up with something truly interesting if they added a little bit of complexity to them. Regardless, this is a fun album to groove around to and should be checked out by fans of a straight up Heavy Metal approach.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 7
Atmosphere: 6
Production: 7
Originality: 6.5
Overall: 6.9

Rating: 6.9 out of 10