I almost thought I had put on a new Kamelot album, but it was the new album by Greek metal band Black Fate. This band started out in 1990, and despite great reviews on their first two demos in the Greek metal media, it was only in 2000 thet their first album was released on Secret Port Records.
In 2007 Nikos Tsintzilonis, one of the founding members of the band, met Vasilis Georgiou, and this meeting gave the band a second life, resulting in the 2009 album ‘Deliverance Of Soul’. Sadly for them, the line up they had at that time, couldn’t cope with the many live obligations, so the search for new band members started. They finally recruited Gus Drax, and started playing shows in support for their last album. And now, two and a half years later, they have finally released ‘Between Visions & Lies’, their fourth studio album. Having never heard this band before, I was flabbergasted when I heard this album. What an exceptional vocal talent, and how did he manage to stay out of the spotlights for so long ? His style of singing somewhat resembles that of Michele Luppi. The guitar work by Gus Drax is also of an exceptional quality.
This band deserves to finally have some success, after twenty or so years. These guys bring us an excellent mix of power and prog metal, that can almost stand the comparison with, let’s say Dream Theater, although their style tends more towards the aforementioned Kamelot.