Greece's FIREWIND belong to the most impressing and hard-working melodic metal bands of our time and their brand-new album “The Premonition” is sure to reinforce the band’s unstoppable rise to the worldwide top within their scene.
Accompanied by flawless media and fan reactions, the band’s 2006 album masterpiece and 4th album all-together, “Allegiance”, could be seen as their break-through release: “Allegiance” managed to enter official sales charts in Japan as well as peaking at #10 in the band’s home-country Greece, remaining in the charts for a solid 9 weeks, while the album’s two singles “Falling To Pieces” and “Breaking The Silence” climbed up to positions #11 and #16 respectively in Greece.
The band’s incessant string of touring for “Allegiance” all over Europe, North America and Japan alongside bands such as Dragonforce, Angra, All That Remains, Kamelot or Sonata Arctica, has not only lead to add worldwide profile and an excellent reputation as class live-act to FIREWIND but also added significant power to the band’s songwriting skills and will to continue conquering new horizons.
Guitar wizard and band-leader Gus G. (ex- Dream Evil and also live session guitarist for Arch Enemy on their 2005 Ozzfest stint) and his illustrious band-members, Apollo Papathanasio (ex-Majestic, Time Requiem) on vocals, Mark Cross (ex-Helloween, ex-Metalium) on drums, Petros Christo (ex-Breaking Silence) on bass as well as Bob Katsionis on breathtaking dual duties with keyboards and second guitar, have now returned with an phenomenally inspiring new album programmatically entitled “The Premonition”, a warning for great things to come. Once again powerfully recorded and mixed with Fredrik Nordström (In Flames, Dimmu Borgir, etc.) at Sweden’s Studio Fredman and mastered at Peter in de Betou’s Tailor Maid Productions (Dark Tranquillity, Meshuggah, etc.), all 10 songs on “The Premonition” offer about everything that a lover of quality modern melodic metal can ask for: The furious first track “Into The Fire” marks a classic and 100% metal grand opening to an album full of highlights, including the catchy powerhouses “Head Up High”, “Remembered” and “Circle Of Life”, the album’s first single “Mercenary Man”, the semi-ballad “My Loneliness”, the melodic firework that “Angels Forgive Me” is as well as a cool version of the song “Maniac” (known from the “Flashdance” soundtrack).
FIREWIND’s ability to combine heavy riffing and classic metal structuring with immense catchiness and glorious hooklines all in an up-to-date and ever-entertaining way are outstanding and triumphantly elevate “The Premonition” to become of the melodic metal genre’s early highlights for 2008.