Leverage
Blind Fire

February 2008
Released: 2008, Frontiers Records/Zink Music
Rating: 4.0/5
Reviewer: Anders Sandvall

This Finnish act came from out of nowhere and delivered a debut album, TIDES, which became a huge hit amongst both the media and all lovers of melodic metal. The debut was only released in Finland and in Japan and no one thought that the debut was going to be as huge a success as it was.



The band has continued writing songs ever since the release of the debut and finally their second album is here. The guys have apparently been sounding tighter and fitter after all the touring and they have also worked on developing their own sound. Guitar player Heikkinen says “We worked hard to make the most of the relatively short time between TIDES and the new one, and we feel we accomplished what we set out to do”. They have used lots of old school influences in the vein of Rainbow, Deep Purple and Magnum in their songs as well as adding certain progressive elements.



All of the material is great and even though Leverage plays extremely radio friendly music, I cannot help but love it. It is impressive that the band has managed to write new material in such an old school kind of way and it is something that really makes them stand out. My favorite songs are the more energetic songs like “Shadow in the Rain”, “King of the Night”, “Stormchild”, “Mister Universe”, “Run Down the Hill” and “Heart of Darkness”. Some of the other songs are not that great but the amount of great songs is over represented so in the long run that doesn’t matter so much. There’s not much to complain about and if you’re into bands like House of Lords, Dare and Masterplan I think you’re gonna love Leverage.



http://www.zinkmusic.com