magine if you will Wolfsbane and Accept coming together to produce NWOBHM flavoured power metal with a very heavy bottom end, and then you may get close to what this Italian band released in 2016. Actually, this is still the most recent new release by the band who have had more than a few line-up challenges during their career, but when a band can state they will soon be celebrating their fortieth anniversary then that is something that should be expected. Prior to this album I must confess I hadn’t come across them before, and there isn’t that much information available about them on the web (doesn’t help when they have a one-word name which is a common word), but I have definitely been missing out.

True, there isn’t anything dramatically new about what they are doing, and the songs are never exactly memorable, but when it is being played at the right volume there is something about this which just makes me smile. This is metal which is all about having a good time, not trying to be anything more than music to get people moving and into the party mood. It has both the naivety of NWOBHM and the polish of power metal, combined with some reasonable tunes and plenty of riffs. There are a few power ballads, but they always keep the chords close to hand and never become too schmaltzy. Not a band or album which will ever set the world on fire, but this shows just why they have been around for so long.

6/10 Kev Rowland