To date the first and only solo offering from 'Glenn Tipton' and for me his debut is a real mixed bag, which see a variety of genres explored, but few that are executed particularly convincingly. 'Glenn' handles all vocals which may raise a few eyebrows, but I can say with some confidence he turns in a better display than on 'Tipton, Entwistle & Powell's' 'Edge of the World', despite some ugly distortion cropping up. Unsurprisingly all the guitar work is compliments of 'Glenn' and for me his fret work is the highlight of the album, bass, drums and keyboards are all provided by guest musicians and include his old sparing partners 'Powell' and 'Entwistle', the well travelled 'Don Airey', 'Ozzy' / 'Metallica's' 'Robert Trujillo', 'Shannon Larkin' of 'Ugly Kid Joe' / 'Godsmack' and 'Brooks Wackerman' from 'Bad Religion'.

'Baptizm of Fire' starts off in fairly familiar territory with the 'Judas Priest' reminiscent 'Hard Core', a decent track which is all the better for 'Glenn's' fine guitar work, lyrically it's a little uninspiring but thankfully the vocals are more than passable. A very respectable cover of the 'Stones' classic 'Paint it Black' ensues and overlooking some dubious vocal work, is a good aggressive cover of a great song. Less impressive is the more modern almost Industrial sounding 'Enter the Storm', which balances subtle with more aggressive, not a million miles away from the 'Jugulator' sound and as with that album easily forgotten. Also missing the mark is the brisker Thrashy 'Fuel Me Up', 'Glenn's' distorted vocals add absolutely nothing and despite some decent guitars and rhythm is another mediocre affair. More melody is evident on the pulsating 'Extinct', regrettably 'Glenn' graces the song with some awful Death Metal vocals along with some Rap style delivery which ruins a potentially good cut. Thankfully a quality track is brought about by the instrumental 'Baptizm of Fire', which just shows what a fine guitarist 'Tipton' is as he blazes away throughout, support from 'Don Airey' and 'Cozy Powell' should not be overlooked. The 'Entwistle / Powell' partnership is resurrected for the mystical winding plodder 'The Healer', a nicely penned effort that despite being a little longwinded, adds diversity to the album and comes off pretty well. Much less impressive is the crude down-tuned 'Cruise Control', 'Glenn's' distorted vocals are just dire and this is in the same league as most of the dross from 'Jugulator'-quickly on. After a subtle intro 'Kill or be Killed' springs into life, this fast and furious ripper is reminiscent of Jugulator era 'Priest' in fact it's probably better than most on that album, ultimately a little crude but still nice and energetic. Back on track is the lively rocker 'Voodoo Brother' which despite additional vocals from the terminally unimpressive 'Whitfield Crane', is definitely one of the better cuts, the chorus is powerful and most importantly very catchy, while 'Glenn' further enhances the track with some shredding fret work. The tempo falls for the final cut 'Left for Dead' a balladsy acoustic number which just leaves me cold, as with some other tracks present 'Glenn's' vocals undergo some distortion and the results are just the same here... plain disappointing.

The remastered version which I own includes two bonus tracks, the first of which is the epic 'Himalaya' a track with bags of potential but sadly loses it's way, the Zeppelin style intro is up their with the best of them, but develops into a listless plodder, 'Glenn's' vocals do the song no favours and ultimately not half as good as it could have been. The second track 'New Breed' was written by 'Glenn' and his daughter and features his son 'Rick' on drums, despite this it's a fairly unremarkable effort, pretty modern in approach and not my usual listening.

Too much late 90's influence for my liking and the distorted vocals are a definite no-no, there are glimpses of the masterful music he creates with 'Priest', but all told this has little replay value other than the title track.