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Power metal stalwarts Brainstorm have been around nearly 30 years as of 2018 and the year that sees them release their 12th full-length album, Midnight Ghost. The members are more than competent musicians and as always, their performances on Midnight Ghost are crisp, tight and catchy. Where they've been inconsistent over their career is in the songwriting. Brainstorm know how to write a song that has the potential to stick in your head with big, fat riffs and keyboard embellishments that enhance rather than muddle the sound and sometimes they write really great songs, like on Firesoul, but sometimes the songs are just OK, and that is the case with Midnight Ghost.

I recall this band really kicking ass the first time I heard them, which was the Liquid Monster album back in 2005. "Worlds Are Comin' Through" and "Despair to Drown" are juggernauts of sound. On Midnight Ghost, I don't hear any juggernauts, just some entertaining but ultimately standard riffing and choruses. Andy B. Franck has a great voice but he's sounding a little restrained and smoother than in the past. Honestly, it was hard not to compare Franck's vocal lines with those of D.C. Cooper and hell, the song "Ravenous Minds" sounds like every Silent Force song ever written.

None of this makes Midnight Ghost a bad album and fans of German power metal would be hard pressed to hate it but it falls short of Brainstorm's past glories.