Holy Knights is a symphonic power metal band hailing from Palermo, Sicily in Italy. After the band’s debut release, they’ve split up just to reunite recently and release this follow-up ten years after the band’s last sign of life. If one thinks about Italian power metal, bands such as Domine, Labyrinth, Rhapsody of Fire and Vision Divine may come to your mind. This band hits exactly the same nerve with a neoclassical songwriting and a mixture of melodic up tempo tracks and more mid tempo paced pieces with some progressive approaches.

The band certainly doesn't reinvent the genre but that isn't their goal. The record is a little bit too short with only about forty minutes of running time but they do what they can do best. The album is nothing less and nothing more than a diverting and refreshing dose of typical Italian power metal.

As only truly negative point, I must though cite the band’s vocabulary skills. At first contact, it’s not that evident but a look on the booklet reveals many spelling and grammar mistakes in almost each song which is mildly amusing and especially not professional at all. Maybe these guys should think about singing in their mother’s tongue or even in Japanese like they do in the exclusive bonus track “Resolution” which is a cover of the now split up Japanese pop band ROMANTIC MODE. While the song itself is rather ordinary, the Japanese lyrics have their flaws but sound good enough to me to be a better alternative to English texts in general.

In comparison to their genre colleagues, the band doesn’t sound too overloaded. Though there are emotional piano passages and balladesque moments on one side and more progressive passages with a few surprisng moments in form of electronic music, the band never forgets what the crowd likes and expects. The melodic guitar play with a few well done solos, the really fast but perfectly fitting drums and some energizing high pitched vocals domiate all eigth songs. Fortunately, the band put no overlong ballad or senseless instrumental tracks on the record. Each one of the eight songs is actually quite appealing to me. As highlights I would cite the opener and the closer. “Mistery” (sic!) is a fast feel good song with a very catchy chorus and great melodies. “The Turning To The Madness” has some well done classical orchestrations and builds up an epic cinematic atmosphere for a great ending.

Any fan of Italian Power Metal in the key of Thy Majestie for example should grab this entertaining release. Symphonic Metal fans should also like this but would probably prefer more courageous bands such as Therion. Progressive metal maniacs might find this record too commercial after all and would rather head for Dream Theater and similar bands. This release might feel okay for many metal fans but only stunning to a handful of them. This record offers nothing new at all but it's fairly better than many recently released overambitious projects from similar bands. If I had the choice between the last records of DragonForce, Edguy, Gamma Ray and this one, my vote would go out for Holy Knights. Anyway, the best European power metal release of the year 2012 is probably the debut release of Unisonic even if it is more rock than metal at some points. From time to time, I really enjoy this fun ride of an album in between my many more progressive and avant-garde records I usually listen to and if you feel for something light-hearted but entertaining, don't miss this release out.

Loudness is a true Japanese heavy metal institution that never fails to deliver. “Eve To Dawn” is the band’s twenty-fourth full length release and marks their thirtieth anniversary at the same time.Let's add that the band's dawn of career hasn't arrived yet and that they are still more convincing than many similar bands of a far younger age.

What these four guys deliver on this release is once again energizing, technically well played and this time particularly guitar driven heavy metal with a few thrashier parts that vary between mid and up tempo numbers. This record includes no big experiments and no ballads but convinces with a very honest attitude. There are still a few imaginative moments on the record that are well integrated into the powerful tracks. The slight oriental sounds in the quite modern sounding opener “A Light In the Dark”, the power metal guitar chords in “Survivor” and the short electronic vibes in the rather traditional hard rock track “Keep You Burning” are some pleasant surprises.

The highlights of this release can definitely be found in the strong middle section. Let's cite first of all the diversified anthem “Survivor”. I though prefer the vivid “Keep You Burning” that includes the most original ideas of all tracks on the record without losing a charming old school attitude. “Gonna Do It My Way” has an addicting angy attitude somewhere between punk rock and thrash metal. The literally crazy closer “Crazy! Crazy! Crazy!” that tells the story of an annoying neighbour, is one of the rare great tracks towards the end of the release and finishes the solid album on an entertaining and funny note.

The band though also included some filler material on this record. One could cite the exchangeable “Pandora”, the somewhat uninspired instrumental track “Emotions” and a few passages in the record’s epic track “Comes The Dawn” that sounds way too long and stretched in the end.

That’s why this release is neither among the band’s highlights, nor among its worst cuts. It's simply a very solid and overall quite good old school heavy metal record. As the releases of Loudness are almost all very hard to find in the Western world, you should absolutely grab this release as it has just been released in North America and Europe by Frostbite Media which wasn't the case for many other records before. Let's croos our fingers that this is just the beginning of a serie of releases from this legendary and still hevaily underrated band. Any way, if you have records of bands such as Iron Maiden or Judas Priest in your collection, then there is no reason or valuable excuse to not have at least one record of the world’s third most important Heavy Metal band in your personal collection. As this record is available at a fair price right now, don't hesitate to grab it because this band is definitely worth your attention and respect.