Greek epic Heavy / Power Metallers MARAUDER deliver their fifth album in their career named "Elegy of Blood". The band exists since 1990 and is the child of the guitarists Andreas Tsaoussis and Giorgos Sofronas. The band is not doing very frequent releases and the predecessor of "Elegy of Blood", "Face the Mirror" was released in 2008.

"Elegy of Blood" includes 10 songs with the first one of the same intro being a small instrumental intro to "The Great War". There are a lot of JUDAS PRIEST influences on this one but other than that it is a cool fast paced epic song. Next comes "Alexander" a song with lyrics of special meaning for us, the Greek people. Very nice song, but I think that nothing will surpass the IRON MAIDEN song and their mocking denial of playing it (which has gotten ridiculous after all those times). "Warriors" and "Roman Empire" are mid paced songs following classic patterns of Power Metal. "Hiroshima" is instrumental with lots of galloping riffs in the style ofIRON MAIDEN. In the next song the speed goes down for "Mother" is a Metal ballad. In the last three songs heaviness and power are back and the band keeps on delivering epic tunes.

MARAUDER have created a record that the classic epic fans will definitely enjoy. There are no new ideas or reinvention of the genre. It's all about classic riffs and standard patterns but they are delivered well with passion and professionalism. The production of the record is of great quality helping in the final result. The vocals sometimes seem to derail in double vocal harmonies but it is not easily noticed. The lyrical themes deal with war, ancient times and personal experiences. The cover of the record is mediocre as it seems like a low quality Photoshop image. The overall impression that "Elegy of Blood" gave me is that it is a great record in a genre that finds great difficulty in redefining itself. So either you love or hate it. For the non-haters...