Firewind - Firewind (2020)

The newest self-titled effort by Power Metal heroes Firewind marks the beginning of a new era: Herbie Langhans (known from Avantasia) is the new voice, and after the departure of keyboardist Bob Katsionis, the band continues as a four-piece, but without losing any of it's trademarks: powerful virtuoso guitar playing, driving rhythm work and first-class vocals performance! It's official: Firewind has once again brought their full potential, making "Firewind" a more than worthy successor of their 2017 concept work "Immortals". Each time Firewind released an album over the last 20 years, it wasn't just the brilliancy of exceptional guitarist Gus G (Ozzy Osbourne, Arch Enemy, Dream Evil) that fans were in awe of, but also the skills of every one of the band's vocalists. In that respect nothing has changed in their newest self-titled album, quite the contrary: with his charismatic voice new member Herbie Langhans (Avantasia, Radiant, Seventh Avenue, amongst others) refines each and every last one of the ten new songs and infuses them with an expressive force that is remarkable. Gus G and Herbie Langhans got to know each other back in the autumn of 2019, when the Firewind leader was looking for a suitable replacement for Henning Basse after the tour with Queensrÿche. Just a few weeks later the recordings for "Firewind" were a done deal, ready for Swedish sound engineer Tobias Lindell (Europe, Avatar, H.E.A.T.) to mix them in 'Lindell Audio Studios'. The result is impressive indeed. "Firewind" boasts 11 prime examples of Melodic Metal songs. The skill, craftsmanship and power bleeds through every note, a passion you can almost taste, with hymnal melodies as a particularly outstanding feature.