It was the middle of July when the Greek epic metal band AIRGED LAMH decided to invite us for the pre-listening session of their new album Ode To Salvation. This is the third album they recorded after One Eyed God and The Silver Arm. It's been 3 years since The Silver Arm was well accepted by the European metal fans, and after a sort tour in Europe AIRGED LAMH started to write songs for the new album. From March to July 2007 the 5 members of the band got into the studio and along with their day jobs they managed to bring this album to life.

We arrived at the studio and with some food and of course beers, the first song Midlothian came as a surprise. An instrumental piece with music that could easily fit to any epic movie. The presence of the keyboardist Manolis Gavalas made this song a perfect intro, and gave as a hint of what is going to follow. Hunter's Path came next. The sound of AIRGED LAMH was amazing. Strong, clear, with melodies that easily stays in to your head. Steve Venardos's vocals where lower pitched than in The Silver Arm but he is the one that created the melodies in Ode To Salvation and felt more comfortable. As the guitarist George Sofikitis mentioned we wanted to keep our style of playing, and take it one step further. John Tsimas (bass) and George Thanasopoulos (drums) made an excellent rhythm section, especially the drums have a great sound creating the foundation that this album was built. Guitars sound incredibly solid; George Sofikitis and Alexander Vasilopoulos made a superb job for rhythm and lead parts, without the fast no-meaning solos, but with melodic dual-lead parts.

I loved the Eternal Eyes' solo from George; it brought Adrian Smith to my mind. The song Dine In Hades is older as Steve Venardo told us: In Silver Arm we made a concept EP with 300 and king Leonidas as subject but didn't made it to the companies. We took the best of this EP and made Dine In Hades, the longest song of the album. Steve wrote the lyrics to the entire Ode To Salvation. My favorite song was Pages Of Essence that starts with some bells, and it is true they can play doom. Heavy and dark it could be easily Candlemass or Solitude Aeturnus. And then Ritual Lair that is a Running Wild-like song. Blood Upon A Star is the 'emotional' moment of the album with 12 string acoustic guitar and a nice heavy break at the end. It is clear that this is something more that just another epic band, AIRGED LAMH managed to take their music one step further.

AIRGED LAMH with Ode To Salvation are breaking out of the borders of Greece and establish themselves to the European metal sound.Ode To Salvation is a self-financed album and at the time I am writing this, AIRGED LAMH are looking for a label to put this magnificent piece of Heavy Metal music to the stores. Let's hope that it will be soon. Cheers!