LOST HORIZON

"Under a prodigious influence of the same, shared flame, baptized in metal and the restored will, they (LOST HORIZON) interlace their faiths and conclude their goals." Yeah, thanks. Is there really any need, you ask yourself? MANOWAR ceased to raise a chuckle with all this Shakespearian guff some time ago, and by hamming it up with a whole manifesto of such phraseology, it makes you want to put LOST HORIZON's "A Flame To The Ground Beneath" to the sword before it's even become accustomed with your CD player — literally!

Then, a revelation… you spare it's very life in the tradition of honorable cod metal warriors everywhere, place it in the CD tray with a tiny spark of optimism and discover that, in contrast to the twattish verbal posturing, "AFTTGB" is actually very passable, and some might say very good indeed.

Overall, there is more to Transcendal Protagonist, Cosmic Antagonist, Prenatural Transmogrifyer, Ethereal Magnanimus, Perspicacious Protector and Equilibrian Epicurius than paralysis of the tongue. As the players in LOST HORIZON, you'd imagine they'd go off galloping in the same old tired fashion upon pistoning double bass drums at every opportunity. But no, there is restraint, texture and precious melody very early on in "Pure" and, as it turns out, it's hard to pick out too many moments when they do resort to said typical Euro metal sonic clichés. If anything, it's those tried-and-trusted trumpeting between-song interludes that revert to the blueprint. But thankfully they're too brief to have you yawning into your flagon of mead.

Clearly more than just muscles and bluster, LOST HORIZON can go bury their ridiculous olde worlde dictionary and consider themselves a decent band. Seriously.