On a musical level, Menchen (the band) plays Classic Melodic Metal along the lines of early Dokken (albeit without the pop gloss) and Armored Saint. The performances turned in by the musicians are top shelf…solid and skillful. Franklin makes his presence known with lots of tasty bass fills and runs. The soloing is, as always, impressive and just flashy enough. Sweet proves his mettle as well by showing off a little more than he normally does in his own band (opening cut “Train Coming” has some cool double kick work). “Snowy Plain”, “Time To Ride”, “Noon Sun” and “Wild Wind Blows” all sport driving, head-banging riffs with the latter even adding a little Deep Purple styled organ for atmosphere. The nimble riffing & groove on “Ashes And Dust” is also quite cool. For his part, Redding is a good singer. He’s got a nice low-mid range tone and strong delivery. That said, though, he can be a little stiff at times and tends to overemphasize the posturing and vibrato here and there. But overall, he does a fine job. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.