Band : Firewind

Album title : The Premonition

Label : Centrury Media

Distributor: EMI

Release date : 24/03/2008

Release : CD

Having given you, the reader, a concisive but good overview of this Melodic Metal band's career in the review of their previous album (2006's Allegiance , posted 19/09/2006 and therefore still available for your data gathering needs), I feel no need to go into that all over again. In stead, an overview of what happened since?

Because real góód things have happened to the 4/5 Greek outfit! Just befóre the release of the Allegiance album (June 24 th ), Greece-only single Falling To Pieces (coupled to a version of Blackfoot 's "Teenage Idol" ) hit the Greece charts, getting to #11 as highest position, and remaining in the charts for 9 weeks. The album iytself also got into the homeland charts, peaking at #10, and staying 6 weeks in the Top 20 ranking. Meanwhile the band had signed a deal with King in Japan, where the August 23 released album àlso got into the album selling charts. In October 2006 King also re-issued the band's 2002 debut album Between Heaven And Hell (with 2 bonus demo tracks, and this time with the original artwork on the cover, not the one that was featured on the original Japanese version of the album). Follow-up single Breaking The Silence (the duet with Swedish singer/ songwrite Tara , paired on the single with the non-album "Healing Tool" and a live version of "Till The End Of Time ", plus a video for the title track) came out on July 2 nd , 2007 (again Greece only, but of course available through the Nuclear Blast mailorder service), and it again rode the hit parades, albeit only peaking at #16 this time.

The album got laurels from fans and media all over the world, and the band put in an extra effort to thank everyone by taking their music out, live on the road. In between and beyond Greece release parties (at hometown Tessaloniki on July 6 and Athens on July 23), the band put in a total of 13 release shows in Germany. In early October Firewind travelled all the way to the Far Orient, first playing at Taiwan's Indie 2006 Wild Scream festival, before flying over to Japan where, after Gus ' guitar clinic in Osake, the band played two sold-out shows in Tokyo, with an appearance at one of Japan's biggest events, Loud Park festival, on October 14. Late October through mid November saw the guys on a European tour with Dragonforce , and apparently a friendship vibe was sparkled, because Firewind was subsequently invited to join the latter and All That Remains on their 13-date tour of the UK which started on Nov. 29 th and ended on December 14 th . After that the band was invited onto Angra 's European tour (February 16 to March 7) as a special guest, alongside Power Quest . Having liked the audience's response on the British isle, the band then put in a 4-date stint with over the UK in late April, allying with Grand Magus . Summer 2007 was somewhat calmer for the band, who did not tour but of course did travel to some festivals ( Vinyl Stories , where they headlined the 2 nd day, & Gagarin Open Air in Athens, Metal Healing in Tessaloniki, Rock A Rades in Tunesia, Bloodstock Open Air in Derby, UK, where they were seconds only to Testament ) and in the Fall (Sept. 19 to Oct. 6) the band did a short tour of North-America (partly headline, partly in support of Sonata Arctica ), the last day playing at the famed Prog Power Festival in Atlanta, Georgia (during which they invited their first singer Stephen Fredrick onto the stage for a couple of older songs). No rest for the wicked, and on Oct. 10 the band was again in Japan for a 4-gig tour with Kamelot . Before starting a song-writing period for the new album, they finished the year playing the Senderos Del Rock festival in Zaragoza (Spain) as headliners and Progpower Scandinavia in Copenhagen (Denmark) in early November (where they got a co-headline position with Orphaned Land on the 2 nd day). Looking back at 2007, Firewind did some 100 shows in support of the Allegiance album, travelling & playing in no less than 22 countries!

Along the way both Gus , keyboarder Bob Katsionis and drummer Mark Cross put in some occasional clinics (among which the Frankfurt Musik Messe , where the band also played an acoustic set), Gus saw his signature ESP guitar (built by the renouned guitar makers on his specifications) distributed internationally, and the band saw 2007's start with a smile on their face, when readers polls in Greece's Metal Hammer magazine had the band winning in 3 categories (they were voted "Best Greek Band" with 26.1% of the votes, winning over Rotting Christ , Wastefall , Naer Mataron and Innerwish – the latter not even getting 5% of the votes; Gus came out first in the category "Best Guitar Player", at 14.5% getting almost 1.5% more votes than Kerry King , and leaving Adrian Smith , John Pertucci and Zakk Wylde comfortly behind; and Katsionis was winner in the "Best Keyboardist" category at 16.4%...doin' quite better than Tuomas Holpainen at 10.1%, Jordan Rudess at 8%, Alex Straropoli at 7.2, and Derek Sherinian at 5.8). They also got real good marks for their Falling To Pieces video (#2) and album (#8).

But it wasn't all nice things that happened to the band. Singer Apollo was hampered from the beginning of 2007 with family problems of a serious nature. This made him travel back home in the midst of their tour with Angra , the last 7 dates (Spain, Portugal, and Italy) being finished by Metalium frontman Henning Basse as interim. In early August, after having fronted the first Summer festivals, Apollo again needs to concentrate on his family, and rather than have the band cancel a series of confirmed gig opportunities and tours, he suggests Basse return to the fold to take over his place. Firewind being a group of good friends in the first place, they decide to let him have the freedom needed to put order to matters, and take a time out until he can re-join the band again (which, I believe, happened for the Japan 2007 gigs in October, I guess – don't shoot me if I'm wrong, okay?!).

The remainder of November 2007 was spent fine-tuning and recording the songs the band had written in the meantime. The quintet again locked themselves away at Sweden's Studio Fredman with Fredrik Nordström , and during those sessions the idea came into their heads for a truly special (one-off) event to be played in their hometown on January 12 th , 2008...at which occasion the band would, for starters, play the whole set of the new album as a thank you to the support they got from the fans over the last year. To make things even cooler, they were gonna record everything for future DVD use!

The new album now, is very much a continuation of the previous one. Being such a tight unit as they are today (with most members being Greek) has obviously come across in the songwriting, and the material is even more catchy than on Allegiance ! No guest roles this time, and frankly I feel they don't need that extra eye-catcher anymore! Apollo is truly at the top of his vocal performance on the album, and except for some backing vocals (apparently occasionally performed by Apollo himself, as evident in such songs like "Head Up High" , "Angels Forgive Me" , "Remembered" , "Circle Of Life" , etc...either thàt, or one of the guys' backing singing is darn close to Apollo 's), and just like on Allegiance , there's moments when the keyboards come through a slight more clearly, and in those instants you're reminded to some of the greater Classic Rock acts of the '70s and '80s, even if the overall sound on the songs is somewhat heavier, and occasionally even slightly (say commercially) Thrashy. Firewind again takes out time to take things on somewhat calmer, bringing us the beautiful semi-ballad "My Loneliness" . The only beauty mistake in my opinion, is that the band has covered the song "Maniac" from the 1983 dance movie Flashdance (which turned out to become one of the most succesful movies in the genre that decade), and originally brought by Irene Cara . Frankly, I feel that would best have been kept as a bonus on one of the singles, and in its stead I would rather have seen another Firewind original.

As a first (pre-album and again Greece only) single, the song "Mercenary Man" (for which a video was meanwhile shot) was chosen (coupled to the album's semi-ballad mentioned in the previous sentence, plus an acoustic version of the title track and the non-album bonus "Spirits In A Digital World" ), and you can listen to that same song (plus the singles off Allegiance and one song off each of the first two albums) at myspace.com/firewind (there's also a nice amount of videos there for you to smple and view). The album itself will also get a limited edition release in "O-Card" packaging which will not only hold the 10-track (just over 45 minutes) CD, but also a DVD featuring 4 songs from the Tessaloniki gig in January, and interviews with all band members.

The upcoming tour with Kamelot (and originally with Visions Of Atlantis , but that became Forever Slave in the end) in April-May already confirmed back in late October (meanwhile a couple of dates were added), we can expect the triumvirat in Belgium at Hof Ter Lo in Antwerp on April 4 th (for other European dates, check out either the band's website firewind.gr, or their Myspace page), the band is now also confirmed to go on a North-American tour with their friends from Arch Enemy (plus Dark Tranquillity and Divine Heresy ) during the rest of May. But before that, both Gus and Mark are again to appear at the Frankfurt Musik Messe this weekend (March 14-15).

That's all for now, kiddos. Mark my words: these Greeks are gonna grow out to be one of Europe's leading Modern Metal merchants! Check 'em out, one and all!

96/100

Tony.