Band:	Widow
Album:	On Fire
Style:	Power metal
Release date:	June 28, 2005
A review by:	grigal

01. An American Werewolf In Raleigh
02. The Preacher's Daughter
03. Here To Stay
04. Re-Animate Her
05. Sinderella
06. Not Alone
07. Dead End
08. Misstery
09. Family Affair
10. I'll Bury You Alive
11. Nightchild [new version] [Japanese bonus]

Italian label Cruz Del Sur seem intent on having a wide portfolio as possible regarding genres of Metal. And when it comes to Classic Power Metal, the label seems to have made a good decision in signing Widow.

"On Fire", only the band's 2nd album, has Iron Maiden written all over it. This risks being an understatement, for the album still succeeds in sounding sounding fresh and invigorating. At the base of this is the honest attitude of these 9 songs, especially when compared to the cheesy-sounding bands I so often hear these days. Very interesting is the inclusion of a female lead vocalist (Lili) in the line-up. (It should here be mentioned that Lili left the band shortly after the recording of "On Fire"). Lyrics are the band's personal take on horror stories - unsurprisingly the band cites King Diamond as one source of inspiration. Prime examples of this are 'Re-Animate Her' and the chilling album-opener 'An American Warewolf in Releigh'.

Lili has a great voice - her style vaguely reminds me of Lullacry's Tanja. The songs themselves are melodic and characterised by the dual-guitar interaction of Cristof and John E., who also throw in a few great solos. Cristof also spews some angry Black Metal-style vocals in all of the songs and I must say I quite liked his voice too. One of my favourite tracks is 'Not Alone' - a song that opens with a laid-back melodic intro which quickly builds up to an exciting climax dense with catchy guitar and vocal melodies before coming to an abrupt end. Some slightly bland drumming was the only weakness I could find here.

While "On Fire" is 'old-school metal' at heart, it has just enough ideas to offer room for further maturity. It is an album I enjoyed listening to repeatedly and will appeal to Metal fans young and not so young.