(Heavy Metal) Empire (w.Tony Martin) - The Raven Ride (Japanese Edition) - 2006, FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Tony Martin (Black Sabbath, Giuntini Project, The Cage) - Vocals
Rolf Munkes (Razorback, Majesty, Vanize) - Guitars
Neil Murray (Phenomena, Black Sabbath, Bow Wow, Company of Snakes, Gogmagog, Whitesnake) - Bass
André Hilgers (Rage, Silent Force, Sinner, Axxis) - Drums

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Empire is the creation of Rolf Munkes, one of the most talented German metal guitarists. Although he isn't much of a brainstorming judging by the band name, he is one hell of a string bender and song writer which he once again proves with the third Empire album. "The Raven Ride" is however lifted to an even higher level by the voice of Tony Martin whose experience comes in more than handy. As usual Munkes has scored an all-star line-up and Neil Murray provides his finger skills once again while André Hilgers (Axxis, Silent Force, Razorback) makes his debut behind the drums. Mr. Munkes may be the one who is calling the shots in the band but in my humble opinion the veteran Tony Martin steels much of his thunder because his vocal performance is stellar. Without him I doubt I would consider "The Raven Ride" to be one of the best albums of 2006 so far but now I do. I sincerely hope that the guitarist focuses his energy and talents on Empire in the future because both Majesty and Razorback fall short in comparison. This is what classic hard rock sounds like at its best - it's melodic, it's passionate and it reaches deep inside of you, grabs you hard and does not let go. Excellent!

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009
EAC extraction logfile from 23. June 2013, 23:09
Empire / The Raven Ride
Used drive  : ATAPI   iHAP122   9   Adapter: 3  ID: 0
Read mode               : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache      : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction                      : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out          : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks   : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations       : Yes
Used interface                              : Installed external ASPI interface
Used output format              : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate                : 40 kBit/s
Quality                         : High
Add ID3 tag                     : No
Command line compressor         : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -6 -V %s
TOC of the extracted CD
     Track |   Start  |  Length  | Start sector | End sector
    ---------------------------------------------------------
        1  |  0:00.00 |  4:24.73 |         0    |    19872
        2  |  4:24.73 |  4:42.69 |     19873    |    41091
        3  |  9:07.67 |  4:04.24 |     41092    |    59415
        4  | 13:12.16 |  5:03.40 |     59416    |    82180
        5  | 18:15.56 |  5:14.57 |     82181    |   105787
        6  | 23:30.38 |  4:43.52 |    105788    |   127064
        7  | 28:14.15 |  4:37.40 |    127065    |   147879
        8  | 32:51.55 |  3:52.46 |    147880    |   165325
        9  | 36:44.26 |  4:05.08 |    165326    |   183708
       10  | 40:49.34 |  4:52.71 |    183709    |   205679
       11  | 45:42.30 |  3:43.41 |    205680    |   222445
Range status and errors
Selected range
     Filename D:\Download\Empire - The Raven Ride.wav
     Peak level 99.9 %
     Range quality 100.0 %
     Copy CRC 19A37FB6
     Copy OK
No errors occurred
AccurateRip summary
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None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database
End of status report