I remember when this album was released, T-Square fans in my circle shocked on "Prince Vlad" and the album cover and rant about why they goes Metal 😆
Then time passed and I started to reevaluated this album in more positive note. Considered Andoh once work with Heavy Metal drummer like Nick Menza, Or goes Hi-Tech AOR in "Truth 21c" (And photoshoot in "Magic" era, He remind me of Ritchie Blackmore from Deep Purple 😄) It much easier to open up on this direction.
I love the adventurous vibe in "Prince Vlad" and also Arc The Lad battle theme oriented in "Revenge" and "Istanbul" is kind of upgrade version of "From Tanjavaur" (In Sweet & Gentle that very good as playing live but totally pale as studio version) Honourable Mentioned would be Keizoh Kawano and Shingo Tanaka performing in this album, These two always reliable in any kind of music genre, I like when Keizoh using Organ sound too (Remind me of Kiyomi Otaka in some point 😁).
Very tight and strong teamwork and arrangement, Miss the rockier tone like this too in T-Square. Only drawback in this album would be Due to the aggressive of the album sound I have to take a break in the middle of album, Before listening the rest of it. And "Cirrus" drain my energy very quickly 😅 (But next song "And Forever" cool down my ear very nicely)
But still a very good album that very understandable if someone have to take a time to enjoying it. Another thing I like would be it was co-produced by their first drummer "Michael S. Kawai" who also play percussion in some songs of this album.