With his first solo album 'Praises to the War Machine' Warrel Dane steps out of the confines of Nevermore and delivers an album that is a lot more straightforward and shows Warrel's fascination for old-school Goth - "Lucretia My Reflection" is a Sisters of Mercy cover-version - as well as thrash metal sounds.

Warrel Dane has been working together with Peter Wichers (ex-Soilwork) on this album, resulting in a much more song based approach to creating songs. Warrel has written all the lyrics and melodies for the album, while Peter handles the guitars, bass and he has produced the album as well. Dirk Verbeuren (Soilwork) on drums and Matt Wicklund (ex-Himsa) on guitars completes the line-up, and Jeff Loomis and James Murphy appears on a song each.

Lyrically he touches base with many of the themes we know from Nevermore; religion ("When We Pray"), depression ("Let Your Down") and the lack of confidence in today's government ("The Day the Rats Went to War"), as well as some more personal issues, like the very emotional 'Brother'. Once more he pays tribute to one of his favourite lyricists Paul Simon, with a very cool version of "Patterns" (Simon & Garfunkel).

Musically this is straighter and to the point, but off course there's references to his main band, just listen to the brilliant opener, the angry and aggressive "The Day the Rats Went to War", or the two closing tracks. The special moments are reached with the very dark, gloomy and depressive sounding "Brother", the brilliant ballad "Your Chosen Misery" and both cover versions are done with great success.

Warrel Dane is one the most versatile vocalists in modern metal, and he delivers his best performance ever on this album, showing his full range, diversity and class on each song. On some occasions he completely overshadows the music and shows just why he is considered one the most influential vocalist in metal today.

How easy is it to be totally objective when you review one of your absolute favourite artist's solo work?
Not that easy - I have been listening to this brilliant album for the past month now, have let it sink in and settle with me. And I must say that this is close to perfection and does live up to my expectations, expectations that were very high. Warrel and his partners in crime have managed to create an innovative and exciting album that I keep returning to with good reason.

Great one!