Thankfully there are a new breed of bands which have landed on the scene who combine the best elements of 80s new wave, thrash, death metal and even grunge, these bands keep the genres alive, Heavy Generation is one of those bands and with their aptly titled "The Spirit Lives On" they fire a flare of skillful playing into the darkness proving with the thunder of drums and the screams of conviction that heavy metal will not go quietly into the night.

There is the right amount of passion to appeal to those who wore, and still do, that uniform of patched-sleeveless denim jackets and boot-runners, from the first crank of "Born To Rock" you are immediately in familiar territory, these Italian messiahs have kept the fundamentals in place that make a successful opener, loud drums, sonic guitar, pumping bass and the vocals of Ivan Giannini which are directly from the same hymn sheet as Rob Halford with an added sprinkle of Ronnie James.

As we continue with the anthem based "Fire Steel Metal", the backing vocals work very well, the slower tempo during the guitar solos are an effective trick, not usually attempted, but they pull it off with style and the glass-shattering scream at the closing by Giannini is magnificent. "No Control" keeps the flow furious throughout, same as "Blood And Sand", there is no letting up on the balance of technique and delivery, the album never slows down with a reflective moment, never gives in to the sell-out commercial moment.

The cry "Heavy Metal Rules The World!" strikes the theme of their very own self-titled track "Heavy Generation", it is a mission-statement of intent on behalf of the band, marking their journey of inception over the past three-years and spinning the compass in the direction of where the future will lead them.

With the sound of sirens and loud speakers the dramatic opening of "Path Of Denial" activates in a political attack of sorts with a distorted-grunting vocal until the chorus kicks in, the music builds slowly throughout, within this tale of dystopia Heavy Generation show they can both rein in and refine their heavy-sound when needed.

The most exciting section of the album is the three-tracks which appear linked and point to a concept of sorts; "Odin", "Warriors" and "March Until The Grave", here the tracks blend effortlessly into each other, if the rest of the album carries a tread it does not bear fruit until this point. There is no reinventing the wheel on this album, if it is not broke there is no need to fix it and what Heavy Generation has done is give a demonstration on how Heavy Metal music should be played, loud, in your face but balanced with skillful playing. It is after all proof that the music still exists in the hearts of the fresh new-bands which have luckily exploded onto the current scene.