Band:	Perpetual Fire
Album:	Endless World
Style:	Heavy metal, Power metal
Release date:	2006
A review by:	wrathchild

01. Medusa's Secret
02. Superstitions
03. Shadow Call
04. Maybe
05. Leave Me Alone
06. Hurricane
07. The End Of A Dream
08. Blind Soldier
09. Castle Of My Soul
10. The Calm Before The Storm
11. Prelude
12. Endless World
13. Call Me [Blondie cover]
+ Maybe [video]

Believe it or not, it was a long time since I could hear such a power metal band, I mean, in the vein of Sonata Arctica. Don't get me wrong, the Italian band Perpetual Fire is far from being a clone, and their first album entitled "Endless World" demonstrates that they have the ability to play some really great power metal stuff.

Great riffs and solos, great vocals reminding of Tony Kakko but also some other power metal singers capable of singing quite high. There are also a few growls (I would say high growls, definitely not guttural) but I'm not sure whether they're good or not: on Call Me, the cover of Blondie's famous hit song, it definitely sounds a bit ridiculous. Good rhythm section, some nice compositions... I can see only two real bad points:
- Those cheesy lyrics, not bad, but a bit plain and using the traditional vocabulary used in power metal (well, I admit there's no "eagle" and very few "warriors" - as you would understand from the song titles, it's more about "feelings" and stuff like that).
- The keyboards. It's a recurrent problem but when used as an orchestration tool, the sound is more reminding of a toy rather than an orchestra. This applies particularly to the 1:00 instrumental called "Blind Soldier". But when used in harmony with guitar riffs, it sounds quite good (just like Sonata Arctica).

You got it, the music played by Perpetual Fire is far from being original, so it's likely to appeal to power metal fans only. Some songs are really cool, like Superstitions or Shadow Call, others are a bit more boring, like Maybe and The Calm Before The Storm. By the way, there's a video for Maybe, with a good video quality but beware, for the content is cheesy (fake fighting actions with the singer). The band shots are good though.
I'm sure Perpetual Fire can gain a lot of fans with "Endless World" and that they deserve it, so I can only wish they find a way to put their own touch forward in the next albums.