For the second time, FRONT ROW WARRIORS from the Stuttgart (Germany) area are taking up the cudgels for their very own melodic metal on their new album “Running Out Of Time”, out on July 11, 2025. Founded in 2019, the melodic metal band has already caused quite a stir in 2023 with their debut “Wheel Of Fortune”. This information comes from the EPK that came with the music, so that saved me looking up those facts. It always pleases me when I get the information I wish, as it makes writing a review so much easier.

As soon as opener “Turn The Tide” starts playing, you are at the edge of your seat, as the positive fast-paced riff, with the enthusiastic backbone of bass and drums starts pounding their sounds out of your speakers. And when (female) singer Elkie Gee starts singing/shouting her clean vocals over all that racket, you know you are dealing with a rather good band indeed. The instrumental diddy that is called “Theory Of Mind” is definitely stolen from QUEEN, as it does resemble the guitar sounds, intonations and atmosphere of their song “Bijou”. When “Holy” gets going, which is a slower song than the opener, you can hear that English is not Elkie’s first language. Not that her accent is distracting or annoying, just that some lyrical choices are a bit off kilter. Like in the song “Seems Like Paradise”, where she sings about the evening dawn. I always thought that was called dusk, but I will allow her and FRONT ROW WARRIORS the creative freedom to name it just as it is.

What does become too clear when I listen to FRONT ROW WARRIORS is that I prefer the faster and heavier songs, as I feel that is where the band comes to life, starts to shine and really impresses me. The slower songs on “Running Out Of Time” are all okay, but the faster ones are the real stars for me. That is also where singer Elkie Gee gets to show off her wares, where she is able to combine her singing with what almost sounds like shouting, but which is done in such a way that it demonstrates how powerful her voice really is. To me that is the avenue that FRONT ROW WARRIORS needs to concentrate on. If that is not the way forward for them, they need to make sure the slower songs are even stronger than they already are. Oh, and it becomes clear that not every song that has the name of your band is strong. To me “Front Row Warriors”, the last song on the album, is the weakest one, which takes away a bit of the pleasant feeling that I was harbouring throughout the rest of “Running Out Of Time”.