CROSSWIND

Well, what do you know? It's another band on the Stormspell Records roster that takes a tried and true style and performs it with passion, balls, and skill. Greece's CROSSWIND plays what most would call power metal, the difference being that on "Opposing Forces" that playing sounds far fresher and more invigorating than the host of bands this past half-decade that have released undistinguished, uninspired and melodically flat albums.

There have been exceptions, but for whatever reason a sizeable amount of the power metal from this decade's second half lost something along the way and has only recently begun redeeming itself. Even then the styles have been more "traditional" than "power." Eh, whatever, there I go dissecting again. The point is that "Opposing Forces" is a true blue, hard-driving and infectious album of power metal anthems that sticks to the basics and gets the job done without wearing out its welcome. Opting neither to bloat the album with meandering epics nor indulge in shred overkill in favor of musical poignancy (ala DRAGONFORCE),CROSSWIND knocks out 10 finely crafted songs and a killing cover of QUEENSRŸCHE's "Walk in the Shadows" in a just-right 36 minutes. It isn't easy writing a balanced, much less concise, power metal album that doesn't result in sugar overdose nor come crashing down to the ground from the sheer weight of its verbosity. On "Opposing Forces" CROSSWIND make it seem effortless.

Taking pages from the playbooks of IRON MAIDEN, GAMMA RAY, and HELLOWEEN (who else?),the twin leads are tight and written solely for ear appeal, the tempos are quick and rhythmically muscular, and the choruses tunefully triumphant, thanks in part to good writing and in part to the golden pipes of guitarist Kyriakos Vadokas who pulls it all together in a way that makes one think of what GAMMA RAY might sound like with Geoff Tate (QUEENSRŸCHE) singing. No wonder the boys knock "Walk in the Shadows" right out of the park. The short and sweet of it is that "Opposing Forces" is good fist-pumping fun.