SUDDEN FLAMES – Under the Sign of the Alliance
- by Matt Coe
- Posted on 12-08-2014
Label:
Maple Metal Records
Rating:
2.5 / 6
Quebec, Canada’s Sudden Flames have been active since 2001, and the quintet are in a fertile country for metal support these days. "Under the Sign of the Alliance" is the power metal act’s second full length album, and these 9 songs seem to be in alignment with a lot of their European heroes such as Gamma Ray and Hammerfall, if thrown through a touch of the American thrash mixer. As good as a lot of the hooks and power riffing can be in "Lost" and the Maiden-like "Beyond", the thin production and sterile drum sound (is it real or programmed?) cuts the teeth out of these tracks.
I’m sure Sudden Flames crushes in a live setting, but for now it’s hard for me to recommend their studio work to date.