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Days of Defiance is the sixth album from Firewind, a band that was formed as a solo project by Greek guitarist Gus G. I always found his playing style and ability to be competent, nothing really earth-shattering and now that he's the guitar player for Ozzy Osbourne I was curious as to how he would sound today with a record of his own. The only other work I've heard from this band was their debut which I found to be entertaining but certainly not among the best albums of that year. Since I haven't listened to anything by them in this period I can make this review without any bias at all.

As it turns out, this is a whole lot better than Ozzy's Scream, which isn't that much of a challenge. This is a pure Power Metal album – it has a very familiar formula attached to it; therefore, this album holds no surprise to a longtime fan of the genre. Most of the album is composed of mid-paced songs that are highlighted by the guitar or keyboard solo. They all follow the same structure, or have an element of catchiness whether it is the chorus or a riff that makes this album tolerable. We also have the required instrumental "SKG" and the inevitable ballad "Broken". Both are ok but I could have lived without them.

The performances here are good enough but what people really want to hear is Gus himself. Like I said before, he's alright, in some cases he really shines, such as in "Heading for the Dawn" and "Chariot". The rest of the lineup is good and I appreciate the fact that singer Apollo Papathanasio doesn't try to do anything that he is not capable of. It also helps that the sound on Days of Defiance is crisp and clean, perfect for this type of metal and one of the things that I mostly liked about the album.

If this wasn't so cliché and predictable I would have scored this higher. It has rocking tunes but nothing that I haven't heard before. Bottom line, this is an enjoyable record that you will forget right after you stopped playing it. I don't know how this stacks up against the rest of his discography, but what I can tell is that if you are a fan of Gus G. or Firewind in general you cannot go wrong with this.