What a glorious Metal racket this US lot do make! Certainly influenced to a large degree by fellow legendary Metallers ICED EARTH BEYOND FALLEN also chuck in specific reference to NEVERMORE, old school METALLICA, JAG PANZER, MACHINE HEAD, PANTERA  and JUDAS PRIEST  to conjure up one of the most thrilling Power Metal albums you’ll hear this year.

The glory of the riff has never been understated in Power Metal and BEYOND FALLEN make no exception to the rule. Coming across with more spit and bite than a barrel full of King Cobra BEYOND FALLEN invoke bands such as the mighty GRAVE DIGGER, EIDOLON and PRIMAL FEAR for their capacity to render steel girder riffing obsequious to the memory of Heavy Metal music.

The groups second long player ‘’Mindfire’’ is sure to annoy the neighbours with its pre-eminent thunder and total Heavy Metal outage. Without much pause from ‘’Act Of War’’ to ‘’Bomb Inside Your Head’’ BEYOND FALLEN deliver a classic, solid brooding Power Metal album that will put them at the fore front of, at long last, a burgeoning underground US Power Metal scene.

Amongst the many standout cuts is the relentless battering of ‘’Blood On The Ice’’ a song that METALLICA used to be able to play; the ominous timbre of ‘’Mindfire’’ the NWOBHM styled ‘’Sniper’’ and the exceptional ‘’The Illusion Of Your Life’’.

Fronted by the snarl and rasp Joe Karavis a singer resonant of Chris Boltendahl and augmented with a resolutely familiar duel guitar pairing of Steve Jasuilewicz and Mike Johnson this triumvirate is more than ably supported with Chuck Donahue on bass and Tom Carden on skins.

With the Power Metal genre throwing up more paupers than Kings these days BEYOND FALLEN should be able to entice even the most hardened anti-Power Metaller critic into their way of thinking.

(Online July 25, 2007)