Band : Emerald Sun
Album title : Regeneration
Label : Pitch Black Records
Distributor : Pitch Black Records
Release Date : 31/01/2011
Release : CD

Hailing from Thessaloniki in Greece, Emerald Sun first saw the light of day in 1998. After two well received demo’s they released their first album ‘Escape From Twilight’ in 2007.

One of the very few bands from Greece they are in no ways innovative, but that does not mean they do not have certain qualities.  OK, they are using a lot stereotypes of the heavy metal/power metal genre, but they are using them well.
Besides of that they do have musical qualities.  The drum work by Bill Kanakis is very good, just listen to the double bass drums on some of the songs.  Next to that  Stelios Tsakirides delivers a fine vocal performance.  Keyboards by Jim Tsakirides are also excellent. Some of the songs are even quite catchy.  But I can’t quite make up my mind about the 12 minute long song ‘Fantasmagoria’.  I mean I don’t quite get what direction they wanted to go into with this song. There’s so much in it, yet it doesn’t seem to fit together.

Major default on this album is the cover version of Bonnie Tyler’s ‘Holding Out For A Hero’. Musically there’s nothing wrong with it, but this song does not seem to match Stelios vocals abilities. So they could as well left this track out.
Besides lacking a tad of originality, and the cover there’s not much wrong with this record. I’d advise Helloween fans to give this a listen.

80/100

Erik Morren.