The second outing for 'Jon Schaffer' and 'Hansi Kürsch's' 'Demons and Wizards' and they continue in the same impressive vein as their debut released some five years prior. Although the liner notes give little away, I believe the album is based upon 'Stephen King's' 'The Dark Tower' series, though I've never read them so can't comment. Musically this is a rich blend of European Power Metal, with an 'Iced Earth' flavour, if I wanted to be critical I might say there's some recycling of the aforementioned band, but on the whole the sound is pretty fresh and in my opinion the vocals of 'Hansi Kürsch's' are what makes this album standout.

First off is the monumental title track 'Crimson King' which takes an almost operatic approach, except with the backdrop of 'Jon Schaffer's' furious riffing, thunderous rhythm work and 'Hansi Kürsch's' powerful vocals, to make for a very impressive opening cut. Less intense is the mid tempo rocker 'Beneath these Waves', a splendidly penned track, that's passionately sung and features a 'Queensrÿche' style chorus, the atmospheric melodic outro is also a nice touch. It's back to the thundering Power Metal again with 'Terror Train' and in all honesty this sounds like an 'Iced Earth' song but with 'Hansi Kürsch's' vocals, while this isn't necessarily a bad thing, I just expected more variation with this side project. The pace falls for the powerful yet balladsy 'Seize the Day', a song where the vocals really steal the show, extremely passionately sung with a glorious chorus and further upheld by a refined melody throughout. The tempo remains subdued for the intro of 'Gunslinger', before quickly building into an 'Iced Earth' inspired ripper, although slightly similar in approach to the opener, lacks the refinements, that said still a decent cut. Much more refined is the ballad come rocker 'Love's Tragedy Asunder' which highlights some excellent contrasting melodies, unusual but impressive rhythm work and a hard hitting, powerfully sung chorus. Further into balladsy territory is 'Wicked Witch', a subtle acoustic piece, that again highlights great vocal work, but overall a bit downhearted for my personal tastes. Back into more familiar territory is the pulsating semi-epic 'Dorian', an energetic rhythm driven rocker, which features a slightly longwinded mid track slow down, fortunately the momentum is restored towards the end to make for an interesting song. The final 'Demons and Wizards' penned track is 'Down where I Am', which opens as a melody rich ballad, 'Hansi Kürsch's' crisp harmonious vocals dominate the track and while his performance is impressive the song lacks a little development towards the end- nice penmanship though. Lastly we are gifted a cover of 'Led Zeppelin's' classic 'Immigrant Song', 'Schaffer' and 'Kürsch' make a fine job of it, but the mysticism of the original is lost and ultimately doesn't quite make the mark in my opinion.

I was lucky enough to pick up a copy of the limited edition duel disc, which contains four bonus tracks. In all honesty another disc is bit over-the-top for 16 minutes worth of material, especially when two are reworked songs from the main album. First off is the excellent 'Lunar Lament' a high quality free-flowing rocker, the rhythm work is pure head-swaying groove, while the lyrics are excellent as alway- should have made the album proper. Next up is another version of 'Wicked Witch', very close to the original only slower, nicely executed stuff but not really worthy of an inclusion. The mystical winding 'Spatial Architects' ensues with a more menacing approach and also a splattering of Eastern influence, as with 'Lunar Lament' an impressive track that should also have been included with the full album. The bonus disc closes with an edited version of 'Beneath these Waves' and as with the proper version a very good song albeit just shorter.

A rating of 84%, I'm bound to get some criticism for this review, but I'm not familiar with the concept, there's a distinct lack of guitar solos, the bonus tracks are better than most of the album tracks and all told the material is hardly leaps and bounds better than comparative releases this year. That said this is still an enjoyable release from two very respected musicians, and I look forward to future collaborations.