Shining Star was originally an idea by Brazilian guitarist Fabio Rocha to move away from the technical instrumental prog music that he was doing and take a more song oriented approach. The project originally featured vocalist Nando Fernandes with their first album Fatal Mistake only released in Brazil. Enter ex-Balance Of Power and current Pyramaze vocalist Lance King who was contacted by Frontline Records (Balance Of Power's label in South America) about doing an album with Fabio Rocha. After hearing the material, he immediately wanted to be part of it. All of the music was recorded in Brazil with the vocals, mixing and production being done at Lance's Minneapolis studio by Lance himself. Failure of Frontline Records to pay for the studio time lead to this project being shelved and seemed to squash any chances of Shining Star to be Lance's new full-time project after leaving Balance Of Power. Another offer came to do vocals for Pyramaze's Melancholy Beast and resulted in a new permanent home for Lance's talents. Finally, almost three years later and wanting this album to finally see the light of day, Lance absorbed the costs of making this album himself and set out to finish it. Released by Lance's own Nightmare Records, Enter Eternity is now available for the very first time.

Sounding a bit like Lance's former band Balance Of Power mixed with elements of Dream Theater and Kamelot, Enter Eternity has a decidedly 80's feel and the melodic, neo-classical edge to some of the material bring Yngwie's Trilogy and Odyssey albums to mind. Shining Star's brand of melodic prog metal is very riff oriented with keyboard accents all topped off by Lance's amazing melodic vocals and highlighted by some very solid vocal harmonizing effects. The choruses to each and every track are rich and melodic with many bringing the listener back to the heydays of Dokken in the 80's. Songs range from fairly straight ahead prog metal / melodic metal with the opening track Nightmare, From Now On, Dangerous Game, Just A Man and No More, a track with a Dokken flavored chorus section. Other tracks like Insanity, use layered vocals to create a more ominous atmosphere with a track that questions the reasons for war and other atrocities that we have committed against one another. Insomnia again creates a melodic yet atmospheric listening experience with some nice piano segments. If power ballads are to your liking, this album has two excellent ones. Never Too Late uses both piano and orchestration for the quieter vocal sections and big booming riffs for the choruses. I like the way the piano comes in at the end to reprise the main melody lines. Lady Of The Night is the obligatory "epic" power ballad and with a very solid arrangement and a huge chorus, this one reminds me of early Queensryche when they were the masters of this sort of style. The album ends on a high note with Travel Through Time, a mid tempo prog metal track that uses sprinkles of piano over heavy riffs. The abstract vocal harmonies and very solid chorus pose the question to the listener, "If you could travel back through time to undo mistakes or prevent certain things from happening, would you do it?".

Fabio Rocha is a very talented guitarist, writing many solid riffs into these musical compositions that are entirely his own. He has a great melodic sense and knows just the right accents and melodies to use for the songs. Although he has the speed and technical ability of someone like Yngwie Malmsteen, he rarely goes off on those 64th note speed scale runs and that makes for a more enjoyable album. I'm not that fond of his guitar tone though, especially for the rhythm tracks. It sounds very trebly and fuzzy for the most part yet his tone for the leads and melodic fills seems just fine.

The songs on this album flow very nicely with the perfect blend of riffs, melody and lead guitar fills. The keyboards are layered in the background for the most part but they do step up to play a more prominent role on several tracks. Lance King's vocal performance is just killer on this album and if you've never warmed up to his vocal style yet, this album just may be the one to finally "convert" you. The man has such a pure, melodic and unwavering style that one only sees with the very upper echelon of metal vocalists. His double tracked and harmonized vocals are pitch perfect and give the tracks on this album both warmth and passion.

My only real criticism of this album is with the production. Lance's vocals sound perfect but the drums sound weak and the bass guitar relegated to the background and I already mentioned the trebly guitar tone. I believe that had the proper funding been put into this record and without Lance King having to eat the cost of making this album, it would've gotten the big prog metal production that it rightfully deserves. Aside from the production shortcomings, what we get is a wonderful melodic prog metal album that has solid song writing and no real filler tracks. Listening to this album really gives you the feeling of listening to some long lost album from the past. With the history behind this album and the fact that it almost never saw the light of day, it had the very real possibility of becoming one of those. With no solid plans to do another album, this album is a special one as it brings together the guitar and song writing talents of Fabio Rocha with one of the best metal vocalists there is right now in what seems to be a one-off collaboration. Fans of melodic hard rock and metal as well as prog metal fans that would rather have tons of melody as opposed to technical wankery, this one's a perfect fit.