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Space Vacation’s fifth album and one that finds their efforts on the upswing after their last album, Lost in the Black Divide, was a little too uneven. This band still worships all things ‘80s in their songwriting, but unlike the last few, there is more of an American vibe on White Hot Reflection. Sure, there are still Iron Maiden influences here and there (how many traditional metal bands can say they don’t have Maiden influences?) like the sweet, harmonized guitars on "Transcending" and the rolling drum fills on "Playing with Fire." But I can also hear some West Coast metal, like the George Lynch riffs on "Walk Away" and some Van Halen-inspired lead work on that song as well as the exercise in hammering-on that is the instrumental "Sleep Tight." Other solid tracks include "Reign in Hell," which begins like something from early Edguy with church-style keyboards and choral vocals before blasting into a kick-ass riff and the moody and menacing "Iceberg." There are also some, such as the simple and dull "Being Evil" and "When Heroes Die," and culminating with the bouncy and commercial "Middle Ages" that sounds like it came off a Styx record. This album reminds me of the second half of the ‘80s when CD technology was becoming more mainstream and allowed for a lot more music to be included in a single disc that you could cram onto vinyl or cassette. This inspired bands to fill up the space, so where we used to get 8-10 songs with 6-7 strong tracks, now bands were giving us 13-15, yet with the same 6-7 strong tracks and the rest just filling space. White Hot Reflections contains some awesome, ‘80s style metal and Space Vacation is on point, but it might have been a stronger release with 3-4 fewer songs. Nevertheless, highly recommended if you are a fan of ‘80s metal.