Russell Allen & Jorn Lande
The Battle

Russell Allen and Jorn Lande together! Two of my favorite singers have decided, almost on purpose, to gift me a CD that features their collaboration.
For those who don't know, Russell Allen is the American singer of Symphony X, while the Norwegian Jorn Lande appears in various bands, most notably Ark and Masterplan.

The album in question consists of twelve tracks, six evenly split between the two acrobatic singers and the other six featuring their collaboration.
The first impact, putting the CD in the stereo and listening to the beginning of the first track, "Another Battle", is a bit traumatic because the first riff is decidedly power metal (a genre I did not expect to find on this album, despite both singers being part of bands that are mostly power), but just wait about ten seconds, and you start to hear the true sound of this album, a sound composed of strong metal strokes alongside truly effective hard rock melodies.

Let's start by talking about the guitarist Magnus Karlsson from Last Tribe, who wrote all the music for this album, with great technical skill, but above all, an excellent ability to adapt to the different sounds typical of the two bands from which the singers come (in the songs sung by one singer alone), and equally good at writing "intermediate" pieces for their collaborations. Excellent also is the work behind the drums by Jaime Salazar (former drummer of The Flower Kings).

The songs: the opener "Another Battle" is poorly positioned in my opinion, for the reason already described, but above all because it is not one of the most beautiful songs and does not provide an adequate business card for the album. The piece is sung by both protagonists, alternating in the verses.
The second track is "Hunter's Night", sung by Allen alone. Although I am more "Jornian," I have to admit that this is the best song on the album. Russell's raspy voice delivers great artistic moments and feels very comfortable with the verse riff that seems written by Romeo (from Symphony X), without therefore clashing (on the contrary) in the chorus, which takes on decidedly more catchy tones.
The second collaboration appears on the third track, "Wish For A Miracle". Truly a beautiful song, with a splendid verse, rather low, that highlights the bass and drums. Right after, here is the chorus, much more cheerful but equally beautiful. The song plays on the alternation (in addition to the singers) of the two atmospheres.
Here is the first solo song for Jorn: it's the fourth "Reach A Little Longer", a poignant ballad where the absolute queen is Lande's splendid voice, accompanied by a sweet piano, which provides truly beautiful melodies. The song (a very common thing in ballads) is a continuous crescendo until the arrival of electric guitars and drums, with a following guitar solo (splendid) and the inevitable key change.
"Come Alive" (another collaboration) is another of my favorite songs from this album. The initial riff is really granite-like, with a very violent guitar that doesn't hold back on several "squeals" (artificial harmonics, call them what you want), which soon gives way to a more rock riff, leading to a decidedly easy-rock but very engaging chorus, where one singer takes turns doing the main line and the other harmonizes (though, care must be taken if you want to notice the nuance).
The sixth is "Truth Of Our Time", a melodic and more classic song than the previous ones, and once again leans more towards Hard Rock than Metal.
Another piece by Lande: "My Own Way". This is a decidedly "Masterplanian" song; you can hear something similar in their latest album: stopped riffs and great bass presence.
After Jorn, Russell also finds solo space in "Ask You Anyway", a song that seems to have come out of Michael Romeo's guitar but revised by some '90s rocker. It isn't bad, but for this genre, I find the Norwegian colleague more suitable.
"Silent Rage" is the penultimate collaboration, perhaps the least metal song on the album. The two prove they can handle it very well here too, with the usual division of tasks.
In "Where Have The Angels Gone" (sung by Lande alone), we hear a decidedly power metal riff, truly beautiful and melodic, giving way to an almost pop verse (if it weren't for the guitar distortion), with the bass taking command; the chorus is beautiful and again rock-inspired, then everything starts again. Here too, the finale gives us a guitar solo with an associated key change (obviously upwards, of course...).
To balance things out, Allen gets "Universe Of Light", where you can enjoy the Symphony X atmospheres again, even if they are decidedly less epic and pompous (and that's not a flaw): this is decidedly a heavy metal song.
The last track could only reunite the two "fighters": "The Forgotten Ones", the other ballad on this album, less intimate than the first, but equally beautiful, and in which the vocal lines are probably the best on the album.

Some say that the timbres of the two are too similar to appear together on the same album, but even though I agree on the (partial) similarity, I believe they are easily distinguishable for someone who knows them both like I do, and this album is, thanks to them, a gem that can't be missing for anyone who is their fan.
At the end of the battle, there wasn't a tie, there was a double victory by these two exciting and talented singers. I sincerely hope that this idea gets the success it deserves and that the pair will gift us other gems like this.
Totally convincing.