Search - Firewind :: Premonition

Firewind's best, and a power metal must-have

Justin Gaines | Northern Virginia | 03/13/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"2008's The Premonition is the fourth album from Greek power metal band Firewind. Firewind, of course, is a side project of Dream Evil, Nightrage, Mystic Prophecy and now Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Gus G. The Premonition is the first Firewind album recorded by a relatively stable lineup, and the result is the band's best effort yet.



Firewind started to move beyond the power metal formula with 2006's Allegiance, and with this album the band became a leader in the genre, not a follower. The Premonition is what you get when you have a seasoned group of musicians with real chemistry and an insane amount of talent. It's completely heavy, completely powerful and full of great melodies, amazing musicianship, dynamite vocals (Apollo Papathanasio has never sounded better), pristine production and some extremely well-written songs. Everything seems to gel here. I think it helps that Gus G's solos seem more like part of the songs and not just an exercise in technicality.



I'd rank The Premonition alongside the best albums by Brainstorm, Tad Morose, Mob Rules and Symphorce as the best the melodic power metal genre has to offer. Listen to "Into the Fire," "Angels Forgive Me" and "Life Foreclosed" and you'll see what I mean. Hell, even the band's version of the Flashdance theme song "Maniac" is pretty epic, and that's saying something!



As much as I loved Allegiance, The Premonition is easily the best Firewind album, and one of the best power metal albums I've heard in a long time. If you only buy one Firewind album, this is the one to get. Hopefully Ozzy won't keep Gus so busy that he can't get the guys together for a follow-up album.



PS - I caught Firewind live in 2008 at the ProgPower USA IX festival and they were amazing."

"The premonition" of the rise of a Guitar Hero.

Nikiforos V. Skoumas | Athens Greece, Cambridge UK | 09/05/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"After extensive touring on the back of their major album "Allegiance", the existing line up of guitar prodigy Gus G., singer Apollo Papathanasio, drummer Mark Cross, key player Bob Katsionis and bass player Petros Christo entered once again `Studio Fredman' to record the "Premonition".



In contrast to the diverse "Allegiance", the "Premonition" focused more on melodic/heavy metal compositions and to a lesser extent on speeding power metal tunes. Overall a much more guitar-oriented album, "The Premonition" opens up with the titanic power track "Into the fire" but from there onwards demonstrates standard tempos, boasting heaviness and melody with increased emphasis on expressiveness. In addition the collective themes and performances (particularly those of lead singer Apollo) are far more dramatic than anything the band had come with in the past.



In retrospect "The premonition" did not come out as much as a surprise as their previous album, probably because at that point anyone who had heard "Allegiance" demanded a follow up of equal quality; and that's exactly what the band delivered.



Released in early 2008, "The Premonition" would come to surpass the sales of their previous album within the first few weeks of its release. On that count, the album holds the biggest to date "Firewind" hit, called "Head up high" and a second-mainly domestic- hit with the cover of the Sembello/Matkosky track "Maniac" (perhaps even to the surprise of the band themselves as they were aiming at a hit single with the track `Mercenary man').



`The Premonition' turned out to be another amazing album and an additional step up the ladder of metal recognition. During an interview* Gus G. claimed that `The Premonition' was actually a very positive title, a gut feeling of his that the album would be the beginning of even greater things for the band.



More than two years past that time, Gus G. is found a full time member of Ozzy Osbourne, lead singer Apollo also became the front man of acclaimed Swedish hard rockers "spiritual Beggars", Bob Katsionis became the key player in Timmo Tolki's "Revoluiton Renessance" while he also put together the hard rock band `Outloud' along with drummer Mark Cross. On account of these developments the guitarist's premonition was spot on; what's more? `Firewind' are ready to release their brand new album in a couple of month's time!





*Metal Hammer (Greek Magazine) issue 280 marks this album with 8,5/10 commenting: "Gus G. and the band do justice to the high expectations of the audience".

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