Power Quest – Blood Alliance (2011)

After a three year break between albums, band’s mastermind Steve Williams returns with a completely different line-up since the band’s last release “Master of Illusion”. With “Blood Alliance” the band will surely make a statement and show they are ready to kick ass with catchy songs and brilliant instrumentation.

Featuring 10 tracks and 60 minutes of very well crafted songs, “Blood Alliance” features all the traditional Power Metal elements that fans of the genre love. This release is packed with catchy guitar melodies, blistering guitar solos, powerful vocals and overall excellent song writing. Steve Williams is back in full swing and with this new line-up, Power Quest sounds better than ever.

New vocalist Chity Somapala provides his gifted pipes in this release and makes the band sound even more melodic due to his singing style. All vocal melodies in this release are done excellently and they greatly exploit the use of backing vocals in some sections. It’s very interesting that the band chose to open the album with an excellent instrumental track and generate high expectations of what else is there to come with the new vocalist in the remaining tracks.

While not as talented as bands like Dragonforce, Power Quest creates a very similar atmosphere in “Rising Anew” and a handful of other songs. The band relies on catchy compositions paired with the musician’s technical abilities to grab the listener’s attention, and they succeed for the most part of this release. Other songs like “Sacrifice” and “Better Days” give you a very retro feeling and make you immediately imagine the band members wearing spandex suits in a retro music video.

The band member’s musical abilities are undeniably excellent and they quickly move from technical sections to more catchy and simple ones, making them very appealing for listeners that want more substance in their music rather than just musical masturbation. In terms of the music, the riffing is excellent through the release and the keyboard arrangements nicely highlight the overall sound of the band. The drumming is very diverse and keeps the songs in line.

Overall, we enjoyed “Blood Alliance” to the max. This release features great vocals, enjoyable (and technical) music, and a variety of songs that keep the album interesting and with high replay value. Steve Williams put together another excellent line-up for Power Quest and hopefully it stays this way for a few more albums.

Release: April 5th, 2011

Country: UK