US POWER METAL… there was time that if a band was labelled such I simply had to have it. Hence I did have high expectation when Firebreather was sent my way to review it. So, can Sunless Sky from Cleveland, Ohio, live up to my expectations?
Opener “Sub Zero” has indeed all the required ingredients: high pitched vocals, a strong main riff, solid leads and a chorus one can sing or better scream along to…. Juan Ricardo vocals can be situated in the vocal range of Geoff Tate, Lizzy Borden and James Rivera (Helstar and these days numerous other bands). Face it, there are far lesser talents out there…. Also, musically the band has the obvious influence of the, again, Helstar- Jag Panzer type of Power Metal. Songs like “Deathmachine”, the title track “Firebreather”, 4th one up: “Immortallity” (is that a hint towards Priest’s “The Ripper” on the first riff?) or basically any of the other 10 tracks on show are decent to good, old school US power metal. Fans of the genre should give Sunless Sky a change, despite the one negative note…. This being the awful artwork in which Firebreather is packed…come on guys, back to the drawing board for that one …