I heard a lot of elements of power metal, traditional heavy metal, and thrash throughout.
A Dream of Dreams - The album opener is also the longest song present, clocking in somewhere around 8 or 9 minutes, nice and epic. Starts off a bit slower and then kicks into some speedy power metal / traditional heavy metal sounding riffing. The chorus is excellent, very sing-along friendly. Overall the song is very catchy and headbang friendly. Great opener to the album.
Drums of War - Another catchy tune on the record with some heavy riffing with the sync'd up double bass. Excellent chorus on this one as well, very mournful sounding vocally. Some sort of chanting-ish sounding vocal bits before the vocals kick in fully. The middle section of the song is very slower thrash-ish.
The Dark Citadel: Part 1 (The Shifter) - Slow and heavy at the start, then kicks in with some great riffing. One of the more "aggressive" sounding songs on the record, Blaine displaying a bit more grit in his voice. There also is a contrasting section with a Chuck Billy-ish sounding voice. James also gets a cool lead bass part in this track.
...And the Meek - I'm sure everyone's heard this one before (at least if you're checking this forum). The vocals are a lot more mature compared to the original version, no extended introduction section as on the demo. Very catchy as expected.
Brave Murder Day - The first of the really "dark" songs on the record. If you've seen Shadow Demon play live you've seen them play this song. Very dark it goes through a couple of different sections: slow and heavy, clean, and then breaks into the faster section with a HUUUUUUGE falsetto!
Waking Among the Dead - Really different. I've not heard anything that sounds similar to some of the riffing in this track, very unexpected but it fits really well with the rest of the music. More great chorus vocals from Blaine. Definitely has some thrashy sections too.
Umbris Mortis - I dig this track. Another dark one. Excellent chorus on this one as well, very mournful sounding vocally. Has some thrashy sounding parts as well.
Sea of Oblivion - Another unexpected song. Has a really cool section with Blaine doing some almost Halford-ish stuff. Includes some of the Chuck Billy-ish vocals too.
Red - Another one of the dark songs. Very cool riffs and some really really fast double bass in a couple of parts. Catchy chorus too. Also has some bursts of blast beats in some sections, very cool. A bunch of different sounding sections throughout as well.
Lots of variety throughout this album. Something for everyone.
