The disc starts of with the nice but powerful intro “To Magic Horizons”, before the first out of 9,5 masterpieces takes over - namely the FAST and bombastic Black Dragon. This song must nearly have killed the legs of drummer Robert Hunecke-Rizzo (of Heavens Gate-fame), the bass-drums on this one is some of the fastest I’ve heard in a long while. This, together with the following “Legend of Steel” reminds me quite a lot of “Emerald Sword” and “Wisdom of the Kings” from “Symphony….”, and there is nothing negative in that. The latter even starts with a classical interlude like “WotK” does. The next song, on the other hand, is quite original. “Lord of the Winter Snow” starts with some weird synth stuff, and this recreates a cold, Norwegian winter in a great way. This was also what Luca tried to make, he says, and this shows his “emotional” and mood-creating side, while the technically brilliant guitar-heroic side is shown where needed in other songs. The song also has a nice fast chorus, and another masterpiece is born. Song 5 is a quite thrilling ballad, “Princess Aurora”, and this leads us onto the single of the album - “The Ancient Forest of Elves”. This is a very hard, very fast, but at the same time very melodic and very catchy song, with a chorus to die for and some great lead work by Luca (who plays melodic and technically perfect leads throughout, sometimes influenced by Irish and even Russian folk music). A short interlude follows - “Throne of Ice” which has some cool almost kid-like choirs, and then the weakest song of the album, “Where Heroes Lie”, goes of with a boom. This boom is some quite miss-placed lead work by producer Sascha Paeth, and this ruins not only the opening riff, but also the song, as it is repeated several times. Except for that, this is another great number. I never stop wondering why mr. Paeth insisted on including this misplaced, misconducted guitar rubbish. He knows how to play, check out any Heavens Gate disc to see that, so I really don’t see why. Ego problems, maybe?? An extremely orchestral, non-guitar (of you read this, Sascha, take my hint!!!) song follows, “Warrior’s Pride”. This one has choirs so big you is almost thrown back, and it’s amazing to hear vocalist Olaf Hayer try to fight those choirs he goes so high it’s unbelievable. Thrilling. The last ordinary (there is a small tune only with beautiful female vocals at the end) song is the title track, and this is one of the best songs ever crafted. It’s so orchestral, so symphonic, so fast, so everything that one can only bow down and greet Luca Turilli with creating “Kings of the Nordic Twilight” - A TRUE MASTERPIECE.

Rating = 9.3
by Torgier Krokfjord
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