There is an entire market out there filled with albums like Infernal, records that aren't quite good enough to be famous or distinguished, but will lift your mood when you're after something easily enjoyable. For those of you who like this sort of dark, melody-tinged Prog-Power Metal, Infernal should find its way into your playlist at some point, because everything the genre has going for it is here; it's just not quite as excellent as it should be.

Led by now Sonata Arctica (but one time Requiem) keyboarder Henrik Klingenberg, Silent Voices use a simple template; Redemption and Dream Theater-esque verse patterns, slick guitar-keyboard driven intros, and big Power Metal choruses. There are a few riffs that hammer hard enough to put this in the same league as Circus Maximus, but mostly it fits the Finnish style pretty well, sounding at times like a pissed off and more mature Dreamtale or even Celesty. There's a good mix of guitar and key action, and vocalist Michael Henneken turns in a decent set of vocal lines, some that will stick around for longer than they should (just check out the chorus to "End Of Days" or the quite sublime "On The Wings Of Rage"). With Pasi Rantenen doing backing vocals and Nino Laurenne producing it's inevitable this will sound a bit like Thunderstone, and on "New World Order" it really does, recalling their Tools Of Destruction period nicely.

Closing epic "Avalon" pushes us to more interesting places but as a whole this is a nice album fans of Wingdom, Revoltons, and Vision Divine will enjoy, and it just goes to show there are good records to be discovered that didn't make an impact on this overcrowded scene.