The two latest releases (before this one) by Firewind, "Allegiance" and "The Premonition", were indeed good albums. They had a good focus of how the band sounded like now and the direction they were going to take from that point on, the problem was mainly that they weren't too experienced on this field. After two albums and the integration of a new drummer, Michael Ehre, Firewind has finally come back. Firewind is nothing but a Greek super group if you look properly at it: Gus G., one of the best guitarists in the whole Greece (and Ozzy's guitarist as well), Bob Katsionis, keyboard veteran and master in Greece, has collaborated with several albums of rising talents, Apollo Papathanasio, extremely worthy of his place because of his singing experience, the newcomer, Michael Ehre from Metallium (needless to say something more than that) and Petros Christo, long time bassist of the band. With this line-up, is it possible not to make something like "Days of Defiance"?
From the very beginning of the album you can notice the changes. As for the guitar work, they frequent much more the usage of the acoustic guitar, an element that has been around for long in Firewind but had become more present in the recent albums (see Allegiance's "Deliverance"), but in "Days of Defiance" it is shining in three songs out of thirteen, a relatively high cipher in comparison to previous endeavors of the band. The work on the acoustic guitar is quite wonderful. It is somehow comparable to works of Spanish flamenco or neoclassical metal, clearly Cold as Ice’s intro is proper as an example of this. It is also held as a rhythmic instrument in "Broken". Among other new elements in "Days of Defiance" is the keyboard. Yes, Firewind has had keyboard for ages, but the presence of it in this album is impressing, for it helps accenting the guitar and giving some atmosphere to the songs - the element that Firewind had always missed. The mix was set for Apollo's voice not being so layered, which truly helps since the first thing one notices in the songs is the vocals, and it adds a rawer sound to the songs. In the mix, Petros's sound was also improved. Sincerely, it's the first time I can find Petros playing, and he does a worthy job, nice bass patterns, and good structures for the songs to go on properly. Basically, their way of playing went much closer with their power metal side than it was before
There are also old Firewind elements in here. The beloved heavy, down-tuned and distorted guitars are in here as always, backing up with the riffs that are just like they have always been. Power-chord patterns that have been used before are back, just to remember the old Firewind, and there's even some old-school guitar playing in here. Apollo's voice is also aggressive and heavy sounding like it has been previously. Bob's solos are more common in this album, but they sound basically similar, so does his keyboard patch picks. Despite this, he is able to show off his talent much more than before, and his playing sounds more skilled as well. Michael Ehre's presence is not a huge change, as the rhythms set by him are similar to Mark Cross's ones. Of course, Gus G.'s shredding style is here again. He is even more pumped up than he has been before, and the composition of the solos are much more interesting than in the two previous efforts, not sure if this is product of playing with Ozzy or of the experience in making this type of metal, but it's really good he got into this way of playing.
There are some tracks that are worth mentioning for standing out. I consider the best song in this album to be "Heading for the Dawn". The song is indeed very original, it has all elements a Firewind song has and it has much more power and focus on it than other songs in the album. Everyone seemed to be really into what they were doing. It has a solo by Gus and by Bob, too, so there's no complaining in here, and over all this, it has "The Departure", which works as an intro to it. "SKG" is yet another instrumental track by these guys. I like the fact they went back into instrumentals with this album, since the last time they did one was on Allegiance, and it was really short ("Before the Storm", for reference). "Broken" is another really outstanding song. It is what should be named the ballad of the album. I consider it to be important because of the presence of the acoustic guitar and its predominance along the whole song.
"Days of Defiance" is a really interesting album. It is Firewind mastering what they have recently been doing with a new member in the band (which makes it be even more remarkable). The existence of new elements in the music and the raw sound in the album make it be more challenging, but they succeeded in what they were doing. I would say this album is no disappointer at all, and it's totally worthy of being bought.
Review written by PowerDaso for .
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