Highland Glory - Forever Endeavour   

Surprise power metal package

Highland Glory started out life as Norwegian power metallers Phoenix Rizing and their recorded output consisted of two albums - 1998's Rise From The Ashes and 2000's Eternal Crusade. After replacing their original vocalist with Jan Thore Grefstad in 2001, the band of Grefstad, guitarist/backing vocalist Jack-Roger Olsen, keyboardist/guitarist Lars Andre Larsen, bassist Knut Egil Tøftum and drummer Morten Færøvig also changed their name to Highland Glory. Not long after, they released their debut under their new banner in the form of 2003's From The Cradle To The Brave and they've just unleashed their follow up to that with Forever Endeavour.

Continuing down the same musical path as its predecessor, Forever Endeavour isn't short of power metal's cornerstone qualities. The simple piano intro to Spirit Of Salvation is soon pushed aside by a plenty of double kick and melodic guitar work but it's the scream of Grefstad that truly signals what Highland Glory are all about. The Stratovarius-isms continue with slightly slower Break The Silence before Edge Of Time showcases a catchy and memorable chorus. The Norwegian power metallers manage to pay homage to their name in several places on the album with some obvious Celtic/Scottish sounds evident on Mindgame Masquerade (even more so on the later tracks Surreality and the dynamic title track) and the epic ballad The Sacrifice features guest vocals from Adriana is and clearly one of the album's high points in every respect.

Real Life really doesn't offer anything exciting as it plods along in an almost “how to play power metal in three easy steps” kinda way and in the ballad stakes, Somewhere doesn't quite stand up as strongly as The Sacrifice and the album really doesn't benefit at all from having another slower track on it. The album's longest track (which is also the final one that is their own material), Demon Of Damnation, is quite a journey throughout from it's slow beginning to the solid driving choruses and it's driving final minutes. Rounding out the album, we're treated to three cover songs in the form of an awesome version of W.A.S.P.'s Wild Child, a nothing-to-write-home-about cover of KISS' Love Gun and a brilliant and slightly faster rendition of Iron Maiden's The Trooper.

Highland Glory has produced a surprise winner in Forever Endeavour. A statement like that may upset a few diehards who think that all that Highland Glory touch becomes gold. However, from the point of view of someone for which power metal isn't something that is high on their playlist (in fact, its rarely in there at all), Highland Glory's Forever Endeavour is something that could certainly find its way in there from time to time not only for the awesome cover songs that round out the album but more importantly on the strength of their own material as well.

(Massacre Records/Riot! Distribution)