I’m not sure where to start. I’ve been putting this one off. I’ve had this album by Estate for more than a month and I’ve listened through a good ten times. It just doesn’t get any better, sorry. I’ve still not found anything great about this album. It’s got to the point I’m actively avoiding it. We’re not off to a great start, so let’s just get into it.

Mirrorland has a pretty good intro, then Iliand Ferro gets to work in letting us all down. Every singer has a set pitch they should not try to go above. He tries, a lot. He doesn’t succeed. Not once.

The guitars are good, the synths sound dated and the drums are solid. But the vocals, ugh…

The Ghoul has an opening riff that wouldn’t be out of place on a Commodore 64. The rest of the song is just flat and the key changes are grating. And what’s with the bad Dracula vocals?

Stolen Heart has more bad Dracula vocals. It just doesn’t work. Stop it.

Winter Kingdom. I feel sorry for Peter Filevskiy. His guitar work is great, especially on this track. I’d be happy to listen to an instrumental version of this song. Put that on the album instead.

The Storm of the Age Part 1: Storm of the Age has an opening dialogue between what sounds to me like two Daleks. Nothing else to see here, move along.

The Storm of the Age Part 2: Knight of Hope sounds like a garage version of the US version of the Sonic CD Soundtrack. Metallic Madness (Bad Future). To add to the nostalgia, there’s bad sounding  Vince DiCola inspired overtones at the bridge… And I’m a big fan of Vince.

The Storm of the Age Part 3: Lady Wind is probably my favourite of a mediocre bunch. If the rest of the album was like this, then we’d be much better off. Play this and bin the rest.

Silvery Skies – Everything about this track is wrong. So wrong.

Matter of Time is just another song. Special mention to the drums on this one though.

Springtime has the return of Bad Dracula, without improvement. But we are at the end of the album, so that’s good. Oh, wait…

Knight of Hope (Mark Boals version) shows what a difference a decent vocalist can make. Thank you Mark Boals!

Matter of Time (Mats Levén version) –  I’m not a fan, sorry. Lyrics on this song include: ‘Break the tight chain of tedium’. Did they listen to the rest of the album?

Overall, if I could go back in time and tell myself to avoid this album would I be better for it? More than likely. This album is pretty uninspiring. I have no intentions of revisiting it down the track to see if time would improve it. No, I don’t think so.

Would I get a patch for my jacket? No.

Estate – Mirrorland is out now on Mighty Music.