It is no surprise that a band from Iceland who called themselves Paladin changed their name to Power Paladin in 2020. To have another band in the power metal genre called Paladin can lead to some jeopardy and Clerics are better anyway. By changing their name to Power Paladin, the Icelandic band got the ball rolling as they delivered their debut album ‘With the Magic of Windfyre Steel’.
Power Paladin begin by getting themselves into initiative order as ‘…Windfyre Steel’ is a big encounter and thankfully, the band breeze through it with ease. For a debut album, ‘…Windfyre Steel’ sets the tone, it sets the scene, and it lays the bedrock down to the demonstrate what Power Paladin are all about as they deliver some solid power metal. Tracks such as ‘Creatures of the Night’, ‘Evermore’ and ‘Into the Forbidden Forest’ are very enjoyable, even if the guitars on the opening track ‘Kraven the Hunter’ sounds a lot like Iron Maiden’s ‘Déja Vu’. Furthermore, Óskar Rúnarsson of Nexion also lends his hands to give ‘Righteous Fury’ and ‘Dark Crystal’ an extra shot of ammunition to an album which already has all the enjoyability of Iron Maiden, Angra, Helloween and even early Edguy.
For a debut album, ‘…Windfyre Steel’ is a safe first album, it sticks very much within its remit and pays homage to their heroes and there is nothing wrong with this. This is an album which is very enjoyable and with all the pieces Power Paladin have in front of them, it’ll be interesting to see where they go from here.
