Crossing the Rubicon again proves that the Amott brothers are gods. If you listen to this back to back with Arch Enemy you can see what I mean Killer guitar riffs on this album, and incredible drumming by Peter Wildoer, who, like Sean Reinert, shows that you can incorporate finesse and groove into speed metal. This is like a high tech, heavier Queensryche meets Coroner, I mean, the guy sings just like Ron Royce. There are a couple of slow spots though, the acoustic passage is a little out of place to me, and we could have lost the tribal drum solo completely. The best song follows this percussive faux-pas immediately though, making up for everything. The guitar tone is pretty cool, it sounds very clean and robotic. There was a band called Indestructible Noise Command about 10 years ago, and the guitar player, Erik Barath, had the exact same tone. So, besides the 2 "songs" which seem awkward, Crossing the Rubicon is a progressive metal achievement of the highest quality, and if you can find it, I highly suggest picking it up.