Warrior Path – ‘Warrior Path’
Album Review By Adam McCann
Symmetric Records/Heavy/Power Metal
There has been a growing trend over the last few years of bands making classic traditional heavy metal; combining the sound of heavy metal with NWOBHM, speed and power metal, these bands wear their denim and leathers with pride. Yet, it would not be long before members of more experienced metal bands would try their hand at this trad metal sound and Warrior Path are one such band. As expected, at least one member of this new Greek band would be in Firewind, joining Bob Katsionis would also be formidable Beast In Black vocalist Yannis Papadopoulos as the band release their self-titled debut album.
As one would expect, this is a traditional heavy metal album which leans on the power metal side, there are plenty of soaring harmonies that lead to very memorable songs. In fact, it is these twin guitar harmonies which make ‘Warrior Path’ so damned good, the melodic passages of the opening song ‘Riders Of The Dragons’ as well as the closing guitar moments of ‘Black Night’ have all the grandiose majesty of Iron Maiden in their prime, whilst the more sombre moments during ‘The Path of the Warrior’ and ‘Valhalla, I’m Coming’ allude to Manowar at their most tasteful. Furthermore, ‘Warrior Path’ allows Papadopoulos to take a step away from the camp Euro pop sound portrayed by Beast In Black and show his vocal prowess in all its glory, stretching his vocals from his usual Beast In Black range, to an Axl Rose style shriek, but unlike Rose’s ultimately annoying warble, Papadopoulos nails each and every note like the consummate professional he is.
Other than being just a tad too long, this is a great debut album and fantastic way to start the bands life, any fan of power and trad metal would do well to check this out and add it to their collection. Hopefully, Warrior Path will not leave it too long before following this up, because this debut leaves some rather large shoes to fill.
Rating : 82/100
MHF Magazine/Adam McCann
