It's not easy to date when Epic Heavy Metal and Epic Power Metal were born. Barely, one could say that RAINBOW established some elements, and MANOWAR laid the foundations and concreted the things, but many more bands gave their contributions, especially on Germany, with GRAVE DIGGER and others. And the Swiss quartet MEGATON SWORD is an heir of them, as can be heard on their first album, "Blood Hails Steel - Steel Hails Fire".

Their music is heavily influenced by MANOWAR and early German Heavy/Power Metal from the 80's (namely, ACCEPT and GRAVE DIGGER), and bear some touches from NWOBHM. It's not something really new at all, but their music has a strong melodic appeal, a bold and aggressive energy, tons of musical weight, and it does not exaggerate on the instrumental technique. But it's really charming, especially on the melodies and choruses. The production was done to build a sound quality that could have the organic and simple feeling of the past, but without denying the advantages of modern technologies. It's not the right the right sonority for their music, but it's good enough to the quartet to express their musical ideas.

There are eight good songs on "Blood Hails Steel - Steel Hails Fire", all of them showing that they can do even better than is heard. But the melodic and weighty strength of "Blood Hails Steel - Steel Hails Fire" (very good work on bass guitar and drums, guiding the tempos without overloading the technique), the Hard Rock catchy scent of "Verene" (the vocals could be better, but are good), the massive melodic appeal of "In the Black of Night" (impossible to resist to these guitars), "Wastrels" with its nasty and hooking melodies, and "Songs of Victory" are the ones that show how these guys have talent and can offer great music in the future.

Some shows and rehearsals will help the vocals to reach the level they can (Uzzy has a good voice, it's just a matter of working it in a better way), and a producer could help them to improve in the future, and these words show my personal belief about their work. For now, "Blood Hails Steel - Steel Hails Fire" is a good first release, so be welcome, MEGATON SWORD.