Being described as common isn't considered as badmouthing. It has its advantages but, in time, also shortages and uncertainties that would eventually shatter any potential that might arise. Recently I was contacted by The Leaders Records in order to cover the latest released EP, named "Point Of No Return", of the Greek Power Metal group, SECRET ILLUSION. It has been a while since the last time I reviewed a pure Euro Power Metal release, therefore I didn't know if I would stumble upon one of the genre's latest innovations, as plenty of acts nowadays have been implementing. Listening to "Point Of No Return" made me think about the late 90s of Euro Power Metal as most of the era's examples seemed to keep it safe, walking in a straight line without straying sideways.

Through this short EP I could easily understand the band's current musical doctrine. Straight up Power Metal, melodic, catchy, rather basic far from anything complex, yet with such a homemade, way too computerized, production setting (At least for the official tracks other than the Demo feature). "Point Of No Return" itself, meaning the studio version, is quite nice. I liked its flow, pretty decent, well played yet sounding too mechanic, especially the skins sounding as if those were programmed with a simplified plugin. Dimitris Giannakopoulos, the band's new lead vocalist, sounded fairly good, somewhat following the same vein of the Italian Power Metal vocalists. Other than that I didn't find too many hot spots on this one. The demo / instrumental version of the track sounded even better than the final studio version, especially the guitars. The keyboards take the lead instead of the vocals thus making it a little bit better than the former. "Turn Back Time", still following the Euro vibe, competent and sounding good, seemed better than "Point Of No Return", well written riffing and great soloing. Last and least is a piano version of "Silent Voices", first featured on the band's demo "Silent Voices" and the opener of the following debut, "Illusion". I found this one as promising, featuring an impressive duet of Giannakopoulos with a female singer that I couldn't recognize.

Generally, this is a nice display of the band's material in different versions. I just wish that the production was better and the material not too frickin' obvious, yet I didn't expect after listening to the opener.