Public Glory, Secret Agony

I am extremely surprised to enjoy this album so much. I traded for it because I have previously heard the song Time for Glory on a compilation album and I absolutely loved how the singer sang the songs, and that is with edge and alot of heart. It wasn't until I opened the booklet til I realized that the singer is a woman. She isn't the standard operatic type female in a band, she comes out sounding very unique. My closest comparison would probably be a cross between Udo Dirkschnieder and at times sounds like a much cleaner Dani Filth. The fact that the choruses tend to stick would help people to enjoy this album. It is very rare to find an Italian power metal band that doesn't have a singer with an extremely annoying high note, but White Skull seems to do the job. This isn't your atypical power metal, sure it has the bombastic drum work and soaring guitar solos, but the songs are structured to where they just keep getting better throughout the entire song.

High Treason is probably one of the best songs here with its very catchy chorus and pre-chorus, not to mention a very Maidenesque fast guitar intro.

Greedy Rome is a midpaced song, with some pretty compelling lyrics and a different more melodic vocal styling by the singer.

Anubis the Jackal and The Mangler are two of the most evil sounding power metal songs I've ever heard. Crushing guitar licks and edgy vocals make these another two of the stand outs.

The best part about the majority of the songs is that the choruses are rarely repeated in the same format. The inital chorus may be with all instruments, then the next time, it may be switched to only vocals, or only guitar, and my personal favorite is the use of double bass and rapid guitar work towards the end of the songs.

My only complaints about this album is the pronunciating of a few words are badly off, for instance the word mangler ends up coming out like mongler, but I can learn to accept this from a band whose native language isn't english. My other complaint is that the backing and group vocals sometimes tend to get a bit annoying, but at least these tactics aren't utilized that often. Even for a concept album about Julius Caesar and the Roman Empire, this is still a great album to have and a great band to check out.