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quality to it. That said when those high notes are reached for she also proves that she has the ability to hit the more normal female range with the best of them. "Wytches" is a song that pays homage to the ritualistic aspects of the path and weather you consider the lyrical content to be an imaginary fantasy that suits the music or something that you connect with as more than just a set of throw away rhetoric is up to you. Either way you end up with a glorious powerhouse of a track that sums up the band in their fullest throws and defines the more powerful end of their spectrum. There are elements both familiar and new here, Bands such as HIM, Nightwish and even Iron Maiden spring to mind immediately but the sound is also original enough to stand on its own two feet. Not a bad start to an album.

"Queen of the May" is an altogether more laid back affair, at least initially. A haunting mix of soft non-lyrical vocal and a sinister guitar line draw you in before things take off in a dedication to the arrival of the spring, new life and the light time of the year. Even when the chorus kicks the song up a gear it remains restrained and through out the song is held in check, never quite being allowed to run wild and all the better for it. It's only during Tony McKormac's brief guitar solo that it shifts a gear only to return to its normal pace afterwards. Ironically it is on this more subdued affair that you get more of an impression of Candia's vocal prowess, you can hear a power in the voice as of yet unleashed but bubbling under waiting its moment. Of a similar nature is "Pagan Born" the ghostly backing vocals underpin the voice the restrained guitar power and the drums that are often tripping over themselves but by contrast to the former song here the halter is off and the song explodes into a frenzy of spiralling guitars, rising and thumping bass lines. The dynamic rises and falls a number of times before heading off in a blind rush towards the close of the song.

In total contrast to the power that has been displayed up until now, we are treated to a ballad in the true sense of the word. "Gypsy Lament" is a stripped down duet between a 12-string guitar and a voice. It's basically a love song but in typical IS style is woven from images of the natural work, the dark earth and a primordial emotion. Many ballads are sickly affairs, a twee display of sixth form poetic emotion, not so here. There is a real sense of love and loss of, beauty and passion, deep heart

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