Firewind

Allegiance (Century Media)
by Martin Popoff

Greek axe-flasher Gus G. is still only in his mid-20s, but perhaps its because of his age, and all the extreme metal that goes on around him, that his particular take on power metal is stacked with bold power chords of an In Flames or even Finnish metal nature. Good thing, because the songs can be a bit pompy, as can the whole not-so-hot image of the band. Veteran Bob Katsionis turns in gorgeous old school synth lines on “Falling To Pieces,” “Deliverance,” and “Breaking The Silence,” and little-known new vocalist Apollo Papathanasio is a secret weapon for this band of an almost Jorn-like stature. He’s a perfect bookend to Gus G’s sturdy strumming, rendered molten by a Fredrik Nordstrom mix, framed dependably on the drum skills of Helloween’s Mark Cross, like Apollo, also on a Firewind album for the first time. The rarified and self-important Falconer vibe of the album helps as well, even if the sum total is not an album one could say has any sort of creative leadership position within the power metal Parthenon.
(www.centurymedia.com)