ASTRAL FIRE - Defy the Lights EP Review

ASTRAL FIRE - Defy the Lights EP

Independent

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Italy has one of my favorite metal scenes. If I have to make a catalogue of my favorite bands from over there it will be a long list. It is also very encouraging to see that it still produces good heavy and power metal releases (not that the other metal genres there lack of quality). ASTRAL FIRE are a new power metal band from Italy who introduce themselves to the metal audience with this EP which includes 5 tracks.

One interesting thing with the band is that almost all of the musicians that participate here have experience with other bands and the curious thing is that except for the singer Maurizio Bergamini (also a member of the heavy metal band UNDERSKIN) the others have a more extreme metal background. However, this doesn’t create any problem to them since in their debut release they show they have a good sense of melody and give to the songs the necessary heaviness that makes the whole listening interesting to say the least.

In my opinion and based on my experience ASTRAL FIRE play heavy/power metal that is mainly influenced by the German metal scene and they also have U.S. metal elements that bring to mind bands like RIOT. As for their German influences, well I think that bands like HELLOWEEN, BLIND GUARDIAN, GRAVE DIGGER and RUNNING WILD are amongst the main ones. However they have this Italian metal touch too that is close to bands like HEIMDALL and DRAKKAR (bands that I like a lot and you should check them out).

All in all ASTRAL FIRE deliver an EP that has energy, catchy melodies and variety. Their songs have all these elements that a fan of heavy/power metal sound loves and as a conclusion I can say that they start their career with a very nice and promising release.

Nick “Verkaim” Parastatidis