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Fighter Records has obviously been scouring the globe for new music and have turned up Chile's Bolido in time to release the band's second album, Heavy Bombers. Usually when I say something is "different" it doesn't bode well and there are some problems with Heavy Bombers, but at the same time this album has its charms. Much of the album is Heavy/Power Metal in the vein of early Gamma Ray or Painkiller-era Priest. Tracks like "The Absolute Dominion of the Skies" and "Supersonic" race along propelled by double-kick drumming and high-pitched screams. Then you have more mid-paced material that hearkens back to the days before genres cluttered up the scene like "Rock n' Roll Days" and "The Heroes". Where Bolido start to stray a little too far off the reservation is on the poppy, radio-friendly "Win Lose or Draw," a track that wouldn't sound out of place on a Y&T album and Heavy Bombers biggest curve ball, "Real Nature". Starting out with an acoustic guitar/bass back-and-forth, this one sounds like something from Skid Row until the saxophone solo. That's right; saxophone. Like the instrument or not (I'm in the latter camp) it's really out of place. On the one hand, yuck, but on the other I give Bolido props for having the stones to give it a go.

Heavy Bombers is a bit of a mixed bag but the good stuff makes it worth picking it up if you dig solid Heavy Metal with some Power in the mix and just a little weirdness to top it all off.