Krossfire – Learning to Fly

Releasedate: 28-01-2012; Label: Pure Steel Records
By: Martine Goffard

It was my curiosity that made me picked this band for the next review. Have you already heard of a Bulgarian metal band before? I didn’t. Ok, a first album, these are newbies who want to break through and may achieve it in ten years, you may thought. Not even that! Indeed, it’s a first album but newbies ? No way. These guys have practiced so much that you would think it’s the tenth of a long carrier. Let’s talk about this album called “Learning To Fly”.

We have two parts on this album. You notice it when you reach the half. It begins with a nice and interesting symphonic intro. It sounds a bit like classical music composed on keyboard. There’s a choir, you can hear bells and it ends with traditional guttural sounds. It just leaves you curious for more.
A clash of swords and here we are with “Warmachine”. This is pure heavy metal. The singer, Dimo Petkov, is literally throwing his voice, pushing it from down low to the heights, as regular as a metronome. It’s a clear, powerful and understandable voice. Now, he doesn’t really sing, this is a call to arms. Unfortunately, the guitars are a bit absent on this one and the keyboard solo tastes like sugar on a spicy dishes. The second song, “How Can There Be?”, is not really memorable but keeps the same level. Then we have an intermeddle with Icaria. This has a touch of what Epica can do instrumentally. What comes afterward is no more heavy but power metal.
“Learning To Fly”, the hit of the album, has melodic piano solos of all beauty. The guitar play appears a lot richer as well. We have different small intros for each song. The one on Touch Of Destiny makes me think of some music box or the little tunes you can hear on carousels. On this second part of the album, Dimo Petkov has a completely different way of singing. It’s fluid, light, it moves with the songs. He shows his full range of notes. We can also enjoy various guitar and piano solos. I mean piano and not keyboard. Though there are both, the keyboardist, Peter Boshnakov, has clearly a long piano training behind him and masters his score at the perfection. Let yourself float in the air with the marriage of the guitar riffs to the keyboard notes on “False Reality” and “Angels Cry”; the cathedral effects on this last one grazing you like a breeze.

The final song, The One, has the nostalgia of a Scorpions’ song. This is the romantic touch of the album, a duo with a fresh feminine voice. It’s soft, slow and full of emotions. The perfect love song. It’s obvious that this album, for a first one, has a maturity that most don’t have. The second part can even make you think of early Blind Guardian. They set the bar high for the next one!

Line up:
Georgi Driev – Bass
Spas Markov – Drums
Georgi Kushev – Guitars
Dimo Petkov – voice
Peter Boshnakov – keyboards

Links:
Krossfire Facebook