If you are a fan of Power Metal, these guys will definitely won't need an introduction, but for those of you that don't, POWER QUEST is a six piece Melodic Power Metalband based in England that have been around for more than 10 years."Blood Alliance" is their fifth album, and if you guys might have heard, right from the first few notes of the intro they brought the melodic Power back.

The album started with "Battle Stations" that to me sounded a little like a speed battle. It seems to me that these guys were a bit in a rush while playing this intro, I mean that European Power Metal is usually fast but I believe that if you want to build some interesting intro to an album, you should have something a bit more constructive into it and not just throw all your cards in the first hand.

The album itself is in a very positive mood, "happy" Power Metal if you want it simple. A bit too happy I might add. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect from a band like this to be all dark but the keys here were way out in the mix in a way that made the music too much softer. "Glorious" is another good example that the main riff of sounded like something a college Punk band like BLINK 182 would play and not a Power Metalband but maybe it was in their best interest to do a song that is more into the mainstream?!

On the other hand, "Sacrifice" is a great song, the best on the album in my opinion. It started with a great riff al'a "Balls To The Wall". In the bottom line, it was a great Heavy/Power Metal song. I can honestly say that from this song on, besides "Survive", the album kept the same vibe and turned into a good something better.

Production wise, it wasn't all that good. The keyboards were way ahead in the mix, the drums sounded small and way in the back and the guitar sound just didn't do the job right. However, the vocals sounded great, but were too low.

In conclusion, whether you are a fan of the band or not, you can give this one a chance. I suggest that if you like the genre try listening to it from the end to the beginning and you will definitely get a better impression.