Search - Firewind :: Between Heaven & Hell

POWER metal not FLOWER metal

Manimal | Seattle WA ,USA | 07/03/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Somebody please help me!! I've had the chorus for "warrior" stuck inside my head now for 2 days and I can't get rid of it.



I guess that's the price one has to pay for listening to a cd that is so damn appetizing. From start to finish it was like a rollercoaster ride that you thought was never going to end and were momentarily depressed when it did end but quickly realized that you can ride it all over again.



With this release Firewind have raised the metal bar to a new level that many peers in the genre will find difficult to rise to. After listening to Between heaven and hell all other metal bastions seem small and irrelevant. The majority of metal seems to run on two tracks - the track of melody and the track of brutality. Most bands seem to compromise one in order to achieve the other. Very rarely does a band successfully fuse them both together but Firewind has done just that and also manages to add creativity to the songwriting that makes each song stand on it's own rather than just recording one song ten times and disguising it as a full length album. You get the impression that these guys are sticklers when it comes to quality and don't just release whatever they record. There's probably alot of material that ended up on the cutting room floor. In other words they go through painstaking efforts to sift through all the rock to collect the gemstones and discard everything else.



OK that's it now. If you like blistering, headstrong power metal with a a heavy dose of POWER your collection won't be complete without this CD. I rarely give albums a perfect score but I think this one for certain deserves it."

The early Greco-American version of Firewind is a winner.

Nikiforos V. Skoumas | Athens Greece, Cambridge UK | 10/07/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Though mostly known for their latest achievement "Allegiance", this very first Firewind album competes closely with the previously mentioned release in terms of quality. "Between Heaven and Hell" is an impeccable album yet very different from Allegiance. This early line- up is put together by Greek metalheads Gus G. (guitars) and Constantine (bass) who join forces with American power metalers Stephen Frederick (vocals) and Brian Harris (Drums).

The composing chemistry of Gus and Stephen is solid and colorful, coming up with inspired riffs, melodic solos and incredibly catchy choruses. In terms of technique things do not get much better than this: Heavy guitar riffs, perfectly phrased solos, precise use of double bass beat drums, without overdoing it, and the unforgettable voice of Frederick separate this album from the bulk of power/epic metal albums of 2002. Finally the production of this work is scholastic and very well balanced.



A fact that will very likely amuse or surprise you is that this line up never met or played live together. Vocals and Drums were recorded in Atlanta USA, while guitars and bass in Greece.



Firewind's new album Allegiance and its seminal singles are charting considerably throughout Europe. When "Between Heaven and Hell" was released the vast majority ignored Firewind's existence; in some European countries it sold less than 100 copies.

"