Power Quest – Blood Alliance

Releasedate: 25-03-2011; Label: Napalm Records
By: Brandy Cross

Power Quest is British power metal band formed by Steve Williams and Steve Scott. The band plays heavy keyboard and guitar based metal and have quite a large metal fan base. After changing lineup in 2008 the band has released its first new album in 3 years.

Blood Alliance starts off with a nice little melodic rocker Battle Stations. Keyboard and guitar solos are phenomenal; it’s a fast paced great way to start an album. Rising Anew opens up for more guitars, more drums and more speed. It’s a fast little rocker that keeps the same basic riff throughout the whole song. Glorious is a dirty little rocker that will leave you wanting more, deadpan vocals and classic metal drumming. Sacrifice really sounds like something Poison might have done, and Survive blends classic metal with intricate keyboards, a heavy riff and a fast guitar solo. Better Days is for anyone who appreciates a little keyboard synth in their metal, the guitar riff picks up right on time to give the track an 80’s sound, vocals go right with this theme and Chitral Somapala changes his singing style just a bit to pull it off. Crunching the Numbers is back to keyboard based power metal with heavy guitar riff and vocals; they keyboards do play a very strong part in this one and they pull it off well. Only in my dreams features a keyboard and bass intro, strong lead guitar and speed. It’s probably one of the best tracks on the album for both instrumentation and vocals. Blood Alliance is a rather nice balance between power and symphonic metal. It’s not overdone; its heavy and the guitars are simply amazing. Finally to end the album, City of Lies features a simple riff that is perhaps slightly overplayed. It’s a good song but ever so slightly monotonous. As an end to an album it’s not bad.
Blood Alliance is overall quite good, Power Quest has seen better days but considering this is their first album in 3 years it’s more than could have been expected.

Line Up:
Steve Williams – Keyboards
Andy Midgley – Guitars – backing vocals
Paul Finnie – Bass
Rich Smith – Drums
Chitral Somapala – Vocalist
Gavin Owen – Guitars

Tracklist: 01. Battle Stations 02. Rising Anew 03. Glorious 04. Sacrifice 05. Survive 06. Better Days 07. Crunching the Numbers 08. Only in My Dreams 09. Blood Alliance 10. City of Lies 11. Time to Burn

Links:
Power Quest Official