SIMPLY A FANTASTIC LISTEN FROM START TO FINISH!!! Cloudscape has evolved from the appallingly monikered Doctor Weird, who did make enough of a name for themselves to warrant an appearance at the Sweden Rock Festival in 2000. Fairly honestly describing their music as melodic, semi-progressive, symphonic heavy metal, if you think of a mixture of Kansas, Deep Purple, mid-period Rush, Symphony X, Toto and Masterplan in fairly equal quantities, then you won't be disappointed. Opener As The Light Leads The Way certainly sets off with a bang, giving the impression of a straightforward melodic metal band. But as you work your way through the 12 tracks on offer, you begin to appreciate that they cover all these bases fairly well. For me, the best results come when they mix the eighties hard rock feel of tracks like Under Fire, Everyday Is Up To You and The Presence Of Spirits with a direct, melodic metal approach that often brings to mind the superb Magnitude Nine. Elsewhere Dawn of Victory has Symphony X stamped all over it, while the more in-yer-face metal of In These Walls could be lifted off Savatage's Crown of Thorns sessions. Meanwhile, the most commonly used style is typified by the more symphonic Scandie metal of Witching Hour which stands up well in comparison to recent releases from Time Requiem or Morifade.